“Wait… Wait up!” Twilight shouted, her bookbag flying behind her, it’s shoulder straps barely holding together as she flew out the library doors in chase of the strange metal orange bird. Far too large to be any sort of condor or eagle, it still flapped its wings and made strange mechanical chirping sounds (Sounding almost like synthesizer beats and beeping sounds) as it flew in the sky above her.
Right now, it was hovering over the school’s entrance, and with another strange chirping sound, it landed atop the weather vane, perched atop it with two small gold talons reflected in the shining afternoon sun.
“What are you?” Twilight whispered to herself, as the bird tilted its head and looked at her in an almost inquisitive manner. It seemed to raise an eyebrow, like it was asking the same question. No, he was asking the same question. It had to be a he. Twilight didn’t quite know how she reached the conclusion, but she just got that feeling.
She knew nothing about that was scientific in any way, but this was something far beyond the realms of normal science, she knew that much. The bird let out another little squawk/beep as it flapped its wings again and took flight towards the still destroyed statue that hid the mirror portal to Equestria. It landed near the portal, and slowly walked towards it in seeming interest.
“Oh no…” Twilight whispered as she ran towards the bird and grabbed ahold of it to pull it back as it pecked at the portal. “You stay away from there, it’s dangerous!”
Of course, when she grabbed ahold of the bird, she realized just how big it exactly was. It was easily as large as her, from talon to head. Twilight’s jaw dropped as the bird turned to look at her, and his crimson shaded eyes -No, optics, she corrected herself- stared into her own violet ones. They seemingly assessed her, gauging her threat level. Twilight squeaked and took a step back letting go of the bird-bot in the process, quite frightened by now. Then, she stumbled and tripped backwards, falling on her behind in the process.
She, despite her fear, took notice of a rather friendly looking red robotic face emblem on the bird’s forehead.
It beeped out a message, and Twilight laughed nervously.
“Er… I’m sorry… I can’t quite understand you…” she admitted. The bird trodded over to her fallen book bag, and Twilight shuddered slightly in fear as he pulled out a notebook and a pencil very carefully from it with his beak and delicately sat them on the ground in front of them. Amazingly, no damage had been done to either item.
It beeped out a familiar message Twilight recognized.
“Wait a moment…” she whispered to herself as she began writing down the beeps on her notepad. “That… That… I know that phrase! That’s Morse Code!”
The bird nodded in approval and seemed to smile at her, letting out a series of cheerful beeps as it did so.
It then slowly let out another series of beeps, after Twilight took out a book from her backpack. One on codes, to be precise.
She slowly jotted down this series of beeps, deciphering the message as she did so.
“So, your name… Er, designation is Sunder, am I right?” the bookish girl asked trepidatiously, still quite cautious of the bird-bot. However, slowly, but surely, she was beginning to feel it meant no ill intent towards her.
“Sunder” let out a small beep that Twilight took as a yes.
Then, from behind her, Twilight heard footsteps and a familiar voice she’d come to love in recent months. “Hey Twilight, who’s your ne-OH MY GOD!”
Trixie, as she was known, suddenly let out a scream of fear as she saw what exactly her girlfriend was talking to. Which was perfectly understandable really. After all, considering if you saw your girlfriend talking to a giant metal condor the size of a human teenager, you’d freak out as well right?
Twilight quickly got up off the ground and put a hand over Trixie’s mouth, hissing “Shhh! You want to scare him?”
She turned to look at Sunder, who only looked confused by this, actually. He was tilting his head in interest once again and let out a series of confused beeps and whirs. Now that Twilight thought about it, the beeps and whirs sounded like that dubstep music she’d heard that Vinyl Scratch girl play so often from her car’s stereo.
“Now, I’m going to take my hand away from your mouth, and you’re going to calm down, alright?” Twilight whispered to her girlfriend.
Trixie, who let out a muffled “Uh-huh…” , nodded and then the hand was taken away.
“Okay,” Trixie said, placing her hands on her hips. “Where’d you find this thing? Did you make it?”
Sunder let out a series of rather loud offended beeps and whirs Twilight figured it best she not translate for Trixie, who was currently taking a few steps back. Maybe the translation wasn’t needed, as she seemed to get the gist of the statement.
“I… I don’t think he likes the idea of being created by a human, or that being even insinuated.” Twilight replied, and Sunder gave her a look that could only be described as “Duh”.
“Okay, so what is he then?” Trixie had to ask, gripping her hands to her guitar case tightly in fear.
“I… I think he’s alien…” Twilight trailed off, swallowing as all the pieces came together in her mind. He had to be, there was no other explanation. As if to confirm this hypothesis, Sunder’s eyes suddenly let out twin green beams that scanned Trixie’s Gibson Flying V guitar inside its case. After this happened, with the shifting of parts, Sunder turned into an exact copy of it, only in his colors.
“Alien… Y-yeah… Trixie will go along with that statement…” Trixie nodded nervously as she stared at the new instrument in front of her. Said instrument quickly changed back into his robot mode.
“Size displacement, transformation…” Twilight whispered, as she jotted down what she’d just seen in her notebook. “What the frak?”
“Not the word I’d use…” Trixie muttered. “Now… Er, don’t you think we should hide him before anyone else sees him?”
Sunder gave her a little smirk, before his form shimmered as little dots on his body lit up before he vanished from sight completely, camouflage with the environment.
“Okay, that’s kinda cool, I admit...” Trixie trailed off.
“...And Active Camouflage. Definitely alien.” her girlfriend sighed.
Unknown to them, all three organisms had been seen. Not by somebody, but a something. In the nearby parking lot, amongst a sea of other vehicles rested a teal blue Ford F-150 Raptor. In a small area on the brakes rested the Decepticon symbol, well out of sight from prying eyes. And that was just how its owner liked it.
He was a hunter through and through, after all. And what use was a hunter who could be easily spotted by his prey?
“Command Base, this is Steeljaw. I’ve found one of them,” his onboard comms system crackled, a very smooth and charismatic voice said. He sounded friendly enough, but make no mistake, he was wanted Decepticon for very good reason. “One of the Autobots is within my claws…”
“Which one?” a deeper voice rumbled. “Steeljaw, remember, although I let you enjoy your hunts with that… partner of yours of lack of a better term, I do not want either of you taking jobs beyond your ability.”
“Please, I know what I’m getting into when I do a job, you and I both know that. My partner? Hardly the term I’d use, especially when she knows I prefer to work alone,”
“Be that as it may, which one did you find?” the same voice from before asked again.
“Hardly something worth the hunt, just a small Predacon. Sunder, I think. That, and two fleshlings…” Steeljaw trailed off, hesitant for a moment. Hunting Autobots was one thing, but the humans? They weren’t even difficult to hunt, nor they even put up a fight before they went… squish. It gave the Decepticon uneasy feelings about hunting far too easy prey. It was like he was like he was a Corvicon hunting a Turbofox!
“Are you having doubts Steeljaw? I could just as easily send in Flich to take down this Predacon for you. She’d love the task…”
Steeljaw let out a low growl, sounding almost wolfish in tone.
“No, that birdbrain I call a partner will not be taking my prize. Small prize it may be, but her ego’s far too big already. This one’s mine. ...But, with your permission, I’d like to ask a request Commander Onslaught.”
“Which is?” Onslaught asked.
“That I capture, not kill, this one, and his two human companions. Take them in for questioning.”
“Then kill them after you’ve learned the location of the Autobot base?” Onslaught asked.
“...Something like that.” Steeljaw replied.
“You’re not growing soft on me are you dear Steeljaw? Remember… I own you. One flick of the switch and…”
Steeljaw growled again. “Yes, I know. I’ll just require two Vehicons with me to track them down. After all… Where there’s one Autobot…” he smirked. Steeljaw may have been a lone wolf, but even he wasn’t stupid enough to do this alone. If that bird called for help, he’d be overwhelmed very quickly.
“...There are bound to be many more,” Steeljaw’s commander finished for him. “Understood, you will receive your reinforcements shortly. Onslaught out.”
Lemon Zest’s room was abuzz with chatter from herself and her friends. Posted all around the walls of the room were promotional concerts of Lemon’s favorite bands and singers; most of which were more to her tastes than that of the other girls. Band posters like Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All, Iron Maiden’s The Trooper, AC/DC’s Who Made Who, Guns ‘n Roses’ Appetite for Destruction and the like. You get the picture.
Despite the number of posters coating the grey walls, the rest of the room was generally in good shape. There was a desk with a computer on top of it, a nightstand by the bed with a lamp on it, and clean carpets devoid of crumbs and dirt. There was also a window looking out towards the garden of her house, with a pair of silver handles that allowed her to seal and open it.
One last thing worth notice was the number of plushies on Lemon’s bed. The pile looked very out of place for how the rest of the room looked, but it suited her sweet and child-like personality quite well. Some of them looked unique, as if they had been tailor-made especially for her and her alone, with a pony version of herself as the centerpiece for this huggable pile of plushies.
In the corner of the room, alongside Trixie’s Gibson Flying V (Lemon could have sworn it hadn’t been orange and gold before...) rested Lemon’s own Dean ML next to an amplifier. A pair of headphones rested next to that.
Nearby, rested some half-finished pizzas in their boxes.
On a couch, nearby, was Twilight and Trixie in their PJs cuddled up under a blanket, with another half-finished pizza resting on a nearby table. Trixie suddenly let out a scream and hugged Twilight close as a chainsaw roared to life on a nearby TV.
Sitting down below, was Lemon, who looked up at Trixie and smirked.
“Who knew the Great and Powerful Trixie got scared so easily?” she teased. “Guess we should be calling you the Great and Cowardly Trixie now…” Lemon smirked.
Nearby, Sour Sweet facepalmed. “You idiot, you never go off into the woods alone! Are you this dumb, you freaking bimbo? All just to look for your boyfriend who your only date with was a quick one in the bushes!” she yelled before grumbling: “...Whore, she earned that.” to herself quietly.
Indigo, who was right next to her, took a few nervous steps away from her.
“W-Well, what would you do if you saw a girl ripped apart limb from limb right in front of you?” Trixie stammered out towards Lemon in response to her earlier jab. “I-I mean, Trixie sure as Hell wouldn’t be acting all calm and collected now would she?”
“Personally, I think if you couldn’t handle a slasher flick, you should have told us,” Sugarcoat remarked, in her usual blunt style, as she took a bite out of her pizza. “It’s not like you weren’t forewarned this was horror night…”
“Yeah, I suppose Trixie had that one coming…” the magician murmured to herself, snuggling closer to Twilight in the process.
Her girlfriend adjusted her glasses. “Personally, I think this movie is highly unrealistic. No one, not even someone after getting ripped apart by a chainsaw would spurt that much blood and gore,” she remarked, quite bored by the spectacle really. “Even if it did have it’s benefits...” Twilight thought to herself as Trixie cuddled closer and she wrapped an arm around her.
“Really, you have to take all the fun out of things Twilight?” Indigo asked, annoyed. “You’re missing the point of slasher films! The blood and gore, along with the cheesy acting is the point!”
“Yeah, I just prefer quality filmmaking, that’s all,” Twilight refuted. “Not… Well, whatever this is…”
“Yeah, I have to say, I’m taking Twilight’s side on this,” Sour put in. “Really, this whole film is built on stupid and just shock value. ...Oh, I remember when slasher films used to be good. Not just kids at campgrounds getting stalked by some guy in a mask for the umpteenth time...” she sighed to herself, her usual ponytailed hair just hanging loose and free.
“You two take the fun out of everything…” Indigo grumbled. Lemon smiled at her.
“Hey, they’re allowed to have their own opinions, aren’t they?” she asked. “Free country and all that…”
Outside a window, escaping all seven girls’ notice were three vehicles creeping up the street. One, the Ford F-150 Raptor AKA Steeljaw followed by two dark purple Cadillac Ciels. All the lights on them were turned off, weirdly enough. Probably so they could be even stealthier, or possibly more intimidating as they snuck up on their “prey”.
Inwardly, Steeljaw smirked to himself. “Oh, how I love the magic of social media, it made everything all the easier for me,” He thought. “I’ll give it to these humans, they make themselves so ridiculously easy to find it’s not even funny. Just a simple hacking of a facial recognition system on traffic cams by Filch, and then a quick run through of Facebook pages and status updates, and I was able to find out where this Twilight Sparkle and Trixie Lulamoon -Such odd names for creatures, really- were hanging tonight, as they say…”
Shame though, this made the hunt far too easy. It was really rather boring, honestly. Took the fun out of everything. Like I said before, there was a reason he’d been branded a criminal back on his homeworld.
“Yeah, I suppose…” Indigo trailed off, before she noticed Sunny Flare’’s expression. She was in the back of the room, just sniffling to herself, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. Indigo, with a concerned look on her face, walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, something wrong?” she asked.
“Sorry, just…” Sunny sniffled. “Just me and mom used to watch movies together every Friday night, rom-coms really. We each had a tub of ice-cream, the only time she actually ate the stuff actually. ...This, all of this, it’s just dredging up old memories, that's all.”
“I mean... We can do something else if you want, if this makes you feel sad. We can always do this another time.” Indigo suggested, kindly. She sighed to herself mentally, ever since her mother was kicked out of Crystal Prep, her friend hadn’t been quite the same.
Sunny shook her head. “No, no reason for me to keep you girls from having your fun... I'll just be in the kitchen, probably hoarding ice-cream like normal girls do when they're sad…”
But Indigo was having none of that nonsense. She shook her head. "Oh, come on. No need for that! We'll find something to do together," she replied. "There are many things we can do, I think. Sports, board games, video games, sports. I'm sure we could find something else to do.”
Sunny Flare chuckled weakly. “No offense, but I'm not as big of a sports nut as you are Indigo. You'd have better luck with Lemon on that front, know she likes rollerblading, just like you.”
Indigo smiled, least she got a laugh out of her friend. She had a point, she admitted she and Lemon went to the local skate park just for spots of late night rollerblading when nobody else was around. Their friends suspected they sometimes did more than that, -And Indigo admitted the idea was somewhat pleasing in thought- but honestly, she didn’t want to ruin things with her best friend.
“But seriously, we can do something else. It doesn't absolutely have to be sports related…” Indigo replied cheekily. She then tossed a wink at Sunny.
“Please, save your innuendos for Lemon…” her friend groaned. “Have some sense of class, please!”
“No no. That's not what I-” Indigo fumbled for words. “I meant we can play a board game or something! I-I wasn't suggesting... You were the one that took that as an innuendo, not me!”
Sunny smirked, and Indigo facepalmed. She realized she'd been had.
“You’re far too easy to tease, you know that right?” Sunny smirked.
“Least I got you smiling again…” Indigo smirked to herself before Lemon let out a shout.
“Hey, who wants to play some Far Cry 4 Multiplayer?” Lemon asked, holding up a pair of controllers.
A whirring sound came from Trixie’s guitar, drawing Indigo and Lemon’s attention.
“Hey, is it supposed to make that-” Lemon started.
“Oh no… No, no, no, no...” Twilight murmured to herself -Beginning to go into a full-fledged freakout- as the ‘guitar’ suddenly shifted forms and changed back into his condor mode. She’d been hoping to keep this a secret for as long as possible.
Sunder suddenly swiped one of the controllers from Lemon’s hands with one of his talons and smirked, almost as if to say… “You got game, girl? Bring it on.”
Lemon looked as if she was about to accept the challenge robot bird or no robot bird, when suddenly the entire front wall of her bedroom was blasted open and smoke filled the entire room. Coughing and wheezing, Lemon and the others stepped out into the front yard.
“Hey man, that was so not cool, I was just about to own this... “ Lemon trailed off as she saw Steeljaw and his two Vehicon companions began to shift forms.
“Oh my…” Sour whispered as two silver heads came into view, with a thin red line serving as the only eyes of the tri-barreled rifle holding vehicons. Steeljaw was much more menacing, and more animistic, possessing a wolfish face, and what looked to be a tail hanging from his backside. His hands were tipped with sharp wolverine-like claws. On his chest, which was mostly comprised of his vehicle mode’s front window was a familiar symbol only Indigo recognized.
“You gotta be friggin’ kidding me!” she thought to herself, eyes widening in horror.
“Now then…” the Decepticon asked. “Twilight Sparkle and Trixie was it? Give up the Predacon, and I’ll spare your meager lives…”