//------------------------------// // "Changes" // Story: Music To Our Ears... // by Prorook363 //------------------------------// I began to feel a strange feeling around my circuits that I couldn’t quite put my sensors on. The feeling felt universal. It felt very similar to Space Bridge traveling… The winds were violent and the trees thrashed wildly, causing branches to smack against one another and causing leaves to hail from above to the ground. The area was desolate and eerie, for the sun’s light was never able to impenetrate the thickness of the leaves, creating the place to be an abandoned unknown area. Not many know of the territory’s presence for it has been uninhabitable for as long as it has been around. Or that’s what the rumors say. Nopony know what truly lies within… A burst of pink and blue energy sprouted from within the area, lashing at trees with sparks and breaking apart any physical matter with in its path. The energy soon became organized (although it occasionally lashed out and met contact with tree bark) and began to move in a spiral formation, slowly expanding outwards. As the matter began to expand, its size began to tear roots from the ground, leaving room for it to grow into its true size. Oddly, the destination of the Space Bridge did not seem to appear any lighter despite the absence of some trees. As the colored energy began to grow to a certain size, it stood there in the forest, whirling and stirring the winds and leaves. That was the only noise for the time being and no pony could stand by and take notice of its presence. Soon three figures emerged from the pink and blue matter, their size incomparable to the energy’s massive size. As they emerged from the Space Bridge, Shockwave gleamed to his companions. He seemed no longer capable of being able to hold the pretender in his palm. In fact he was the same size as Carnivac. Drift seemed to take noticed too. “Wait, hold on, wasn’t this guy half our size a dimension ago?” Drift shot, pointing at the canine who was now walking between Shockwave and himself. The three stood in front of the slowly dying portal as it shrunk in size and slowly tamed itself. As the Space Bridge came closer to disappear the silence began to grow stronger in the forest. Shockwave looked at the pretender quizzedly. He did realize there was a change in Drift’s and his size. Was it a possible side effect of the space bridge? Carnivac saw Shockwave eyeing him and snarled. “What are you looking at?” he barked lowly. Shockwave still pondered on how Carnivac managed to remain unaltered by the space bridge. It was possible that the changes to Carnivac’s anatomy and minor upgrade could’ve made him immune to the portals side effects but other than that there was no other reasonable explanation. “If you don’t want to be gutted out here like a savage creature such as yourself should, I’d choose a wiser set of words the next time” Shockwave snapped, looking away from Carnivac. Carnivac snorted. Shockwave looked back at the disintegrating portal as it spiraled faster within itself, rapidly increasing its pace as the portal shrunk. Once the portal vanished, leaving nothing but a barren hole in the ground and the howls of the wind, Shockwave found himself gazing at the bark of a tree. Shockwave knew about the aspects of this organic structure in front of him due to his many visits to earth, thus, leading him to believe that Soundwave was teleported to another dimensional earth. Shockwave approached the bark of the tree and ran his palm over the material. He shifted his optic up and down the tall structure as he felt a strange vibrant energy shifting in the tree. ‘Must be from the Space Bridge’ Shockwave thought to himself. “So, was Soundwave here before?” Carnivac said from the back. He was sniffing the area for any trace of energon. “I am not getting a lead here” Shockwave turned back around and walked towards his ‘comrades’. His feet compressed under the soft dirt which was once hidden in the ground, now exposed by the small crater. “The coordinates to dimension travelling are never exact.” Shockwave explained. Drift lifted a brow. “Wait, so you’re saying we might not even be close to Soundwave?” Drift snapped, his arms crossed in frustration. Shockwave shook his head. “No we are indeed close. We just aren’t at the exact location he spawned from. It’s much like saying the coordinates were…a rough estimate” Shockwave responded as he glanced around his surroundings. Drift nodded his head in understanding but Carnivac just shook his head. “Whatever, I don’t understand a slagging thing you’re saying” Carnivac snorted and began to walk away from the two and out of the crater beneath them. The area was dark, yet Shockwave sensed the warmth of a sun pressing on his body. Carnivac began to prowl the area, his canine form walking cautiously amongst the trees. Drift looked around, wondering what to do. “So what do we do now?” Drift asked, looking up at the leaves above him. Shockwave shot him a stare. “You did remember to bring the equipment, yes?” Shockwave barked, his optic gleaming red. Drift laughed at the doctor’s rage. “Calm your servos down. I brought the energon scanner, data profile, and the M-UGPS. Not that we need any of the three” Drift replied pointing over at a crawling Carnivac. Shockwave nodded his head in agreement. “Run a geographical scanning of this area with the M-UGPS and find us the quickest exit” Shockwave ordered. Drift motioned his hand upwards and nodded his head. “Got it” Drift remarked. Shockwave looked at the occupied assassin and walked past him so that he could follow Carnivac. The pretender seemed to be sniffing various trees for some time. It seemed as if he was picking up a trail of some sort. As Shockwave finally caught up to Carnivac, Carnivac perched his ear upwards. “You aren’t much of a spy you know...” Carnivac muttered, still trying to pick up on an unidentified scent. Shockwave looked back and saw Drift still fiddling with M-UGPS. He knew he wouldn’t be able to find his way out of this paradox area if he descended any further. “I did not wish to spy on you. I came by to know what scent you picked up on” Shockwave said looking down at the canine. Carnivac picked his head up and turned back to Shockwave. He then transformed, his legs unfurling while his quadripedal stance changing into a bipedal stance. His head ascended upwards to the top which gleamed with a red visor. Carnivac stared at the scientist and pointed at the tree. “It seems I picked up a trail on some sort of creature…” Shockwave only snorted. He would not want to be wasting his time on knowing Carnivac’s next prey. It was obvious he was already into the hunt… “…But it seems to have traces of a certain material. Almost like Dark Energon…” Carnivac continued, hearing the scientist’s previous response. Shockwave’s optic Brightened. ‘Dark Energon? Where could such a thing like that be doing here on earth?’ Shockwave thought to himself. Carnivac smirked as he gazed at Shockwave. “It isn’t exactly Dark Energon though, so I’m actually investigating. Now if you’ll excuse me…” “Hey if you two aren’t busy I’d listen to this. I’m detecting very faint energon signals around us. Do you happen to know where the scrap we are?” Drift shot from a distance. Shockwave immediately took that as a warning sign. Quickening his pace, he walked over to Carnivac and motioned his arm out to Drift. “We leave this place, now!” Shockwave ordered walking alongside Carnivac and looking back at a slowly advancing Drift. He seemed to still be keeping his optics on the Energon Scanner. “I don’t reckon these are all Soundwave, right?” Drift added, now behind Shockwave. Shockwave paid no attention to his remark though. Shockwave thought to himself about the Dark Energon zombots and the way their sparks emitted energon. He knew it couldn’t be too coincidental. “Carnivac, I need you to pick up on the trail you were tracking” Shockwave demanded. Carnivac gave him a puzzled look. “You’re telling me you want to walk TOWARDS the creature?” Carnivac asked. Shockwave only glared at the pretender fiercely. Carnivac laughed and shook his head. “Well it seems I won’t get my freedom…” Carnivac added transforming back into his creature form. “…Because it seems the hunters might become the hunted.” And with that, Carnivac sprinted across the trees, quickly trying to pick up the scent. Shockwave and Drift ran after him trying to pick up their pace with the pretender. Shockwave sprinted past trees, wondering where he could be on earth that contained faint energon signals around him. Drift was looking down at the energon scanner as he ran alongside Shockwave. His optics quickly scanned the monitor. “Hey, would it be a bit insane to say these energon signals are moving along with us…” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Alright Soundwave let’s take it from the top one more time!” I shouted, sitting alongside Soundwave on top of the Stage. It grew very dark now (luckily I knew by the time not by staring outside of my broken front door) and even though I was extremely tired, I just wanted to play one more song. Just one more. “Ughhhh…Vinyl…” Octavia grunted as she came out from the living room, covering her head with her hooves. Soundwave tapped me on the shoulder and nudged his head over at Octavia. Uh oh… “Vinyl, I understand you have a performance you are to attend, but so do I, so can you-” BRRRT! Octavia stopped talking and closed her eyes. She covered her ears and lay down on the floor. I turned to my partner to see his talons(?) on the disc which he scratched to create the noise. He seemed to be satisfied with what he did but it wasn’t cool. I shot him a stern look (even though I had on my shades) and he turned to me. His shades seemed to dim a bit. “What?” he asked me. It sort of sounded like he was laughing. I waved my hoof at him. “Yeah, not cool Soundwave” I shot at him. “I thought it’d be a bit…humorous” he grumbled. I shook my head. Octavia did have a point. I should be a little nicer to her since she’s only going to be here for a while. I looked over the turntables and saw Octavia slowly getting up from the ground. As she got up, she stomped her hoof in the ground. “Vinyl, control your…’friend’” I gave her a nervous smile and then looked back at Soundwave. He didn’t seem tired at all from blasting music all day. To be honest, after all that is going on around me, I was getting very tired lately. I decided it would be good to cut it for the night. “Alright” I said at a mad Octavia and patted Soundwave on his back. He seemed to have gone back to the console already. He turned around and looked at me with his red glasses. “I think that’s enough for today.” I yawned as I stretched out my body. “You should get ready to knockout Soundwave. We’ll rock out more tomorrow” I told him, pointing over at my room and then back at the turntables. Soundwave gave me a weird look and I knew already he didn’t understand what I was saying. Again. I facehoofed and tried again. “You know, Sleep, rest, chill?” I suggested. Soundwave still stood there not knowing a thing I was talking about. I put my hoof to my chin to think of a way to tell a robot go to sleep. “Umm…I order you…to go…offline?” I stammered towards Soundwave. It was the best I could think of. Soundwave brightened his visor and approached me fiercely. Apparently he didn’t like what I said. “You want me to go offline?” he said looking into my eyes. Oh buck, this is so scary, I might piss myself. “Uh…sorry” I murmured shaking. What did I tell him? Soundwave backed off and shook his head. “You horses always expect to resolve your insults with pleading” he said shaking his head with his arms crossed. Insults? “Uhhh, I honestly don’t even know what I told you” I said honestly. He looked at me now. “Are you serious?” he asked, with a strange tone. I nodded shakily, still bucking scared. Soundwave then broke out into strange robotic laughter. I looked at him as he laughed(?) on the stage. I looked over at Octavia who looked at Soundwave like he was insane. Finally after a while, Soundwave stopped and finally stood there silent. I think I needed help from Octavia on this one. “Just hold up here, for a second will yah?” I told Soundwave, motioning my hoof downwards. I turned around and went down the stage to go to Octavia for help. As I got to her, she seemed to be really sleepy. “Vinyl, can we wrap this up? I think we all need to get our rest, honestly” the grey pony grumbled. I patted her on the shoulders trying to reassure her that everything will be good. “Yeah I will. I just need your help on how to tell a robot to go to sleep” I grumbled. Octavia shot me a tired look. “uhh…try turn off…and…umm…charge…or recharge” she told me sleepily. I was just about to thank her but it seemed as if she really wanted to sleep. “If you..need…me…” Octavia said as she passed by me but she never got to finish for she walked into my room. The room with the only bed. Great, now I guess it’s sleeping on the floor for me today. Or the couch. I looked back over at the robot that still stood there looking at me from the stage. Now where is he going to sleep? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I grinned under my faceplate and started walking over to Vinyl Scratch and her companion. Vinyl let out a long sigh and looked up at me… “Well it seems as if we lost whatever was following us” Drift muttered, slowly coming to a halt behind Shockwave and Carnivac. Shockwave still stood ahead of Drift and Carnivac was taking the lead, directing the group to the source of the strange energon signal. Carnivac finally came to a halt behind a large tree which was embedded by a green substance of some sort. The strange material seemed to have melted a dent into the bark of the tree. Carnivac got close to examine it, sniffing the substance, only to turn his nostril in disgust. “Oh Scrap. Alright gentlebots I found are ‘energon’” Carnivac remarked, shaking his head. “And let me just add…it doesn’t have a pleasant smell…” Shockwave came alongside Carnivac and approached the tree. He glanced at the green bile on the tree, trying to make out the properties through optic analysis, but this substance was so strange, he could not pick up any readings on it. Shockwave knew he could not touch such a substance for it would surely do the same thing to him as it did to the tree. “Drift” Shockwave called out. The bot quickly came to the scientist’s side, the energon scanner still in his hand. “I want you to collect a sample of this substance and place it into the energon scanner’s test tube” Shockwave ordered, pointing at the green bark before him. Drift fumbled through the settings off the energon scanner and brought the instrument close to the bark. Once Drift did so, the instrument instantly radiated a vibrant green and the scanners flew off the charts. Drift was taken aback by the significant force of this ‘new energon’, for he expected it to just get sucked into the tube. Shockwave was just as stunned when he saw the effects of the energon acted upon the scanner. “Well, what’s happening?” Carnivac snapped still sniffing around trees. It was clear that he was not done picking up on the scent. Before any of the two could answer though, the scanner began to rattle in Drift’s hand, glowing vibrantly and letting out a humming sound. Shockwave looked at the device at well, out of caution though, not amazement. Shockwave quickly took a few steps back, leaving Drift to hold the device. Drift was not going to keep a shaking instrument I his hand though, and hurled it to the side. Just as Drift had done so, the instrument grew into a burst of green flames, falling down back to the ground in enflamed pieces. Shockwave lashed out in rage at the sight of the scanner combusting. That was the only energon reader he had in this dimension. Enraged, Shockwave approached Drift. “Have you fired up the M-UGPS already?” the scientist snapped glaring at Drift. Drift looked back with a stone cold look. “The schematics are downloading. Apparently, it’s difficult to run schematics on a place filled with explosive energon” Drift retorted, pointing over at the bile infested tree. From afar Carnivac laughed eerily. “You know, if I were you guys, I’d start running.” Carnivac chuckled. The two bots turned to face the pretender who was now down five trees from them. “Because not only do you not have your scanner to keep track of our stalkers, but we also possibly attracted their attention with that explosion” he added narrowing his head towards the green flames. Shockwave and Drift looked at each other for a moment. Finally, Drift took lead this time and Shockwave followed as the two began to approach Carnivac. Carnivac was just about ready to sprint through the trees once more but stopped quickly. “Oh yeah, one more thing…” he continued narrowing his slanted optics at Drift and Shockwave. “…Get ready for anything. The scent is getting much stronger...” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Apparently, what Vinyl calls ‘sleep’ is recharge too us. The exhausted unicorn looked up at me, her purple optics heavy with fatigue. She levitated the visors she wore on top of her head a while ago. She’s been arguing with me for about 15 minutes, trying to force me back into recharge. Scrap that, I am not slipping back there to dwell on more memories. I managed to place myself in a neutral state and I do not plan to let my servos go haywire. “Soundwave…just go sleep already!” the frustrated unicorn grumbled at me. I shook my head in response. She grumbled and placed her hooves (I learned they’re called hooves thanks to Vinyl’s conversations with Octavia) on to her face. “Fine, Fine!” she exclaimed in frustration rubbing her optics. I looked at her with a satisfied look. Finally, she could rest and I’ll be able to- “Can you just at least promise me that you won’t use the turntables?” she added pointing at the stage behind us. Scrap, she was really doing this? … Slug it, I don’t take orders from anybot…or horse. I threw my hand up dismissively at her and walked back to the stage, ready to blast up the beats again. Vinyl let out another moan and chased after me. “Dude, c’mon I’m tired” She pleaded. I turned my head towards her and snorted. We were alongside the right side of the stage already. “And?” I shot at her as I prepared to go up the stairs on the right of the stage. Vinyl threw her hooves up in the air. “And? If you don’t go to sleep I’m going to throw you outside and let Nightmare Moon take care of you” Vinyl snapped. I stared at the enraged unicorn puzzled. This Nightmare Moon character seemed to be a legend you would tell protoforms considering she brought it up only when she wanted her way. She was obviously attempting to scare me. I looked down at her from the top of the stage and shrugged. “No need. I’ll walk out on my own and take care of this Nightmare moon myself” I shot sarcastically as I went back down the side of the stage passing Vinyl Scratch. Her optics seemed to have got a bit smaller and her mouth shot open. “Wait, what…but…the…” Vinyl stammered behind me as I made way to the entrance of the music room. As I got closer to the door though, I realized something important. Vinyl was the only horse around here that had turntables. Scrap, if I left I would not be able to blast music. That was the only thing keeping me occupied around here (as well as keeping me from resorting to my old ways). I took a few steps away from the entrance and heard a voice ring from my side. “What the heck? First you were all cool and now you’re being all lame!” Vinyl exclaimed as she passed me up. I stopped in my tracks and watched the unicorn walk into the entrance of the music room. She placed one of her hooves on the entrance door. She seemed to have something strapped around her back “You know what?” she shot at me. Her tone made me wince a bit for some odd reason. “Do whatever you want. Just go ahead, okay?” she added shaking her head. THUD! She slammed the music door shut and left me in the room in silence. I looked at the door for a couple of nano clicks, trying to process what just happened. Well, it seemed as if Vinyl had an apparent outburst due to my apparent change in motives (according to her). What left me truly wondering though, was the fact that I winced at her outburst. Why would I wince at a unicorn barking at me? I was one to never falter in any way to anyone who interrogated me. But once again, she wasn’t interrogating me… Ah scrap this, I’m going to forget about it and focus on one thing: Operation: Remix I turned away from the door and made way to the stage before me, walking to the side and going up the stairs. As I stood up there and prepared to carry on my objective, I noticed a necessary component was missing. The console. The operation cannot proceed it seems. I looked down at the turntables which were now useless to me and grunted. So I guess the object strapped around Vinyl was the console. And I just let her pass by me with it. Alright, I was officially losing my perceptive ability. I just let the unicorn slip out with the console and I was staring at her the whole time. By Primus, this was inexcusable. I walked away from the turntables and proceeded down from the stage. I motioned over to the corner of the room which was to my left and sat down on the ground. Sadly, I was once again forced to dwell in on my own thoughts in this room. The silence never really helped aid my sanity, but at least the lights accompanied me in this room. As I sat on the floor, I couldn’t stop but wonder for my reason at wincing at Vinyl’s tone. I tried to rid of the thought from my servos but to no avail. Each attempt just brought back the thought of me and Vinyl, proceeding to conduct circuit frying noises capable of creating a soothing rythem, yet harsh enough to be comparable too. Wait… … Is it possible that I…feel compatible with…Vinyl Scratch? I ran the thought in my servos, flexing and unfurling my fingers. I knew it wasn’t a strong feeling like the felling where the two are officially compatible with one another. But it was a strong feeling that you would develop with an individual whom you can relate too, much like my cassette-cons. It was a feeling, in which… I thought for a while trying to find the words to fit the gap within my sentence. I just could not find the terms to use though. It was clearly not in my… My visors brightened at a certain word I stumbled upon. I’ve heard it before, a long time ago before the start of the Civil War amongst cybertronians. …She was my ‘friend’. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Did you just wink?”… The more trees the three passed, the less patience Shockwave developed. Drift ran alongside Shockwave, still trying to run the diagnostics on the geographical structure. It was near complete, but running at the same time was slowing the pace of the download. Carnivac was still picking up on the scent, passing a repetitive amount of trees. Shockwave grumbled at the thought of a tree. He was beginning to despise the sight of them, and vowed to destroy as many as he could when he was out of here. He couldn’t waste his energy breaking down a never ending amount of these organic structures though, so he could only glare at each one and think angry thoughts. Suddenly Carnivac halted in his tracks and perched his head up growling. Shockwave and Drift stopped in their tracks as well. Before them was yet another set of trees, except this time, they were accompanied by a group of odd looking creatures. Shockwave and Drift glared at each specimen, trying to pick up every aspect of each one. The creatures seemed to be almost insect like. They had a black coat, with huge blue optics. They all had horns on top of their cranium and large white fangs. The creatures seemed to have tattered wings accompanied by degraded legs. Carnivac glared at each one, drooling as his eyes scanned each creature. The specimens heard the pretender’s growl and already turned to look at the cybertronians. They looked at the three with fear in their eyes. Carnivac snorted. “Some hunt this is going to be…” he remarked as he prepared to leap. The black animals looked on in fear, trying to figure out what to do next but it seems their savior was the most unlikely individual to do so. “Carnivac, stand your ground” Shockwave snapped. Carnivac rolled his optics and looked back at the scientist, slowly regaining back his normal stance. “What, I suppose you want to propose an alliance with these things as well?” Carnivac snorted, already knowing Shockwave’s intentions. Drift proceeded away from Shockwave and towards Carnivac. “Well, why did you stop Carnivac? Just get on with the kill and let’s keep going!” Drift exclaimed, ignoring Shockwave’s previous orders. Shockwave did not say anything though, which surprised and angered Carnivac. “Because Drift,” Carnivac growled. He gazed turned his head back at the five creatures still too scared to move. “The scent ends here…” he added fiercely. Drift looked away from Carnivac and back at Shockwave. “How do you know these things, honestly?” Drift asked the scientist. “Common sense” Shockwave replied and walked past the two. He made his way in front of the five which stood at least an earth foot shorter than him. The idea of being shrunk made Shockwave feel limited, but he still trudged on. “What are you?” he asked, eyeing all of them with his single optic. Each of the creatures looked back, wondering the same thing. Unfortunately, one of them was too caught up in their fear and turned around to flee, flapping its damaged wings fiercely. Carnivac growled wildly, thrashing his paws into the ground. Shockwave turned back to his white coated companion and nodded. With a smirk, Carnivac ran at full speed, crushing branches and throwing leaves into the air as he grew closer to his kill. The airborne creature made the big mistake of looking back though, because once he did so, Carnivac came at him, soaring in the air due to a powerful leap. Drift looked at the pretender’s agility and endurance from afar in shock. Shockwave only glared at the four creatures before him who looked at their once fleeing companion get tackled to the ground. Leaves thrashed about wildly as Carnivac wrestled with his squirming prey, a feeling he quite enjoyed. It fought back, scratching and bucking at its attacker. It was no use though. Carnivac was too strong. It continued trying to free itself from its attackers grasp, but Carnivac seized the opportunity, digging his metallic fangs into the neck of the squirming creature. His prey let out a gurgled squeal and shook weakly as it began to slowly lose its energy. The four remaining creatures looked on in horror as they witnessed their companion die from the hands of this newcomer. Carnivac seemed to have taken notice of their attention, for he turned around with the creature in his mouth as green blood trickled glistened from his fangs. With a chuckle, Carnivac immediately thrashed his jaw wildly to the side, instantly snapping the neck of his prey. One of the four viewers instantly emptied whatever contents were left in their stomach. “Wow, they bleed energon!” Carnivac exclaimed, licking his lips in satisfaction. He lowered his optics down to his battered prey. “…Still doesn’t beat the original though…” he added. Apparently it wasn’t acidic to cybertronians like it was to organic compounds. Drift came alongside Shockwave, seeing everything that just occurred. “So, I reckon an alliance is out of the question” the assassin asked patting his hands together. Shockwave looked at Drift and then back at the terrified creatures, whimpering and huddling amongst one another. “No” Shockwave responded flatly glaring down at the four. “They just won’t speak of what occurred. Unless they would like to suffer the same fate…” “NO!” one of them squealed. “We’ll do anything just…please…” Shockwave’s optic gleamed with joy. “That’s what I was hoping you would say” “Now I’ll try this once more…” Shockwave added proceeding closer to the creatures. “…What.Are.You?” The creatures looked at one another still terrified. One of them managed the courage to speak up. “We…we… we are…” “How about I just call you dinner?” Carnivac cut in proceeding closer to the four. The four squealed and huddled together once again. Drift went around and stood in front of Carnivac. “Don’t screw this up pretender” he shot glaring down at the savage beast. Carnivac snorted and proceeded to walk back to his kill. Drift turned back around and motioned his arm at Shockwave. Shockwave nodded his head and looked back at the animals. “Proceed” he said. “we…are..Changelings…” one of the managed to say. Shockwave glared at each one and tried to figure out why these creatures would be given the prefix of ‘change’. He decided not to ponder on that question and decided to move on to the other. “Now tell me, ‘Changelings’, do you have a higher official?” Shockwave asked, crossing his arm. The blade upon his pulse cannon gleamed from a small light seeping through the top. The Changelings looked amongst one another, thinking if they should really risk their lives to not answer a question like this. After a long silence, Carnivac growled ferociously. “Okay, apparently they don’t, now let’s get on with…” “We have a queen!” one of them squealed out of fear of ending up like his friend. Carnivac shook his head enraged, knowing he wouldn’t get a chance to kill again. Shockwave’s optic turned orange at the thought of these creatures having a queen. If these animals have an abundant amount of energon flowing through their veins, imagine how much of the synthetic energon the queen can provide? “Drift, Carnivac!” Shockwave barked looking at his two escorts. He then looked back down at the Changelings. “Let these fine specimens escort us to their queen…” Shockwave continued glaring at each one. The Changelings quivered with fear as they rose up slowly, flapping their insectoid wings and moving slowly back to the spot of their queen. They decided it was best to not question the murderous robots. As the four proceeded in front of their captors they could still hear the purple robot talking. “If any of them try running Carnivac…” “You don’t have to tell me doc…” the white coated canine replied. The scientist snorted. “I know…I just wanted to make sure they heard…” At that moment, all four of the Changelings gulped. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stupid Soundwave. Dumb robot wants to do things his way and because I won’t let him he wants to leave. Fine! Let the dang robot leave I could care less. All he does is sit around and stay silent and if he isn’t he’s always nagging. UGH! BY CELESTIA HE’S EVEN MORE UPTIGHT THAN OCTAVIA! …well, not really. I mean he likes the same things I do… Freaking couch isn’t comfortable. I can’t stop tossing and turning because I just can’t get comfortable on this dang thing. How was I able to sleep on it before? … Uhh…I seriously hope Soundwave doesn’t leave. The thought of that just sucked… I got up from the couch because I got tired of trying to get comfortable and went over to the kitchen to make myself a midnight snack. Even though it may have been past midnight. I walked to the table tiredly and sat myself down on the seat. I telekinetically opened the refrigerator and pulled out the orange juice carton. I was too lazy to get a cup so I just opened the carton up and drank it from there. Ah, it was really refreshing. I drank the juice until I no longer felt thirsty and put the carton back in the fridge. Once I did that I just sat there on the table with my hoof on my forehead. Alright fine, I just can’t seem to shrug the idea of Soundwave leaving off my mind. I don’t want him to go. I mean, it’s cool to have a robot around which you can hang out with. Also he helped me create a new genre of music! (Well sort of; apparently Rivers’ Soundwave did the same thing a while back) I shook my head, thinking about what could happen to Soundwave if he left. I could just imagine him leaving my house and going Celestia knows where. A thought then hit me and made me wince. I could imagine Soundwave wondering into the Ever Free forest and getting torn apart by Timberwolves as they slowly clawed and scratched at him… I got a case of the chills and immediately hoofed myself so I could snap out of it. I didn’t want to think of Soundwave getting torn apart. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself for letting my new friend get torn to bits. It didn’t feel weird to consider Soundwave a friend honestly because in a sense he has been there for me. He’s been there for me with his music and he’s actually been able to control himself even though he was pounded by Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. I got off of the chair and began to walk away from the kitchen and make my way to the music room. I had to check if Soundwave was okay because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all (it wasn’t the couch, okay!?). As I walked to the door leading to the music room, I noticed that the light was on. I guess I forgot to turn off the light when I slammed the door on Soundwave. I kind of felt bad for doing that in a way, but Soundwave was being a total jerk so he deserved it! I walked to the entrance and placed my hoof on the door. Hopefully Soundwave will still be there in the room, although if he is, he’s going to be real mad about me taking the laptop. I thought about what I should do for a bit, but before I could even do that, I felt my hoof open the door and I walked in. I guess my mind left me alone and my body did the thinking for me. As I went into the room, I immediately noticed there wasn’t a giant robot standing on top of the stage. I looked around the room, scared that he actually did leave, but then when I turned to my right I saw him. He was sitting on the floor in the corner of the room, one of his legs stretched out while the other was underneath it. He looked at me with his red glasses for a bit and then looked away at the ground. Oh thank Celestia he’s still here. I closed the music room door behind me and walked over to the robot who was sitting in the corner. He didn’t seem to notice me walking towards him. Or maybe he didn’t want to notice. I think he was still pretty mad. I walked right next to Soundwave and hunched down on the floor. I stared straight at the amp a couple of meters from me and sighed. Boy this silence was awkward. Why did I come in here again? Oh wait, yeah I came to check in on Soundwave. Well, he seems okay, so I guess I’ll just be leavin- “I’m sorry” a voice said from my left. I turned to my side quickly and saw Soundwave looking straight ahead as well. Did he just tell me sorry? The robot was stone cold almost, and the only emotions he usually had were dry humor and sarcasm! “Wait…you’re…sorry?” I asked in shock, my eyes as huge as I could make them. I was still tired but surprises usually woke me up. Soundwave didn’t look at me. “I’m sorry…for…” Soundwave stammered, but he couldn’t finish. I was wondering what he was trying to say and waited for him to continue but he didn’t. He just kept staring out at the wall. What the buck was he sorry for? “Uh...sorry for what?” I asked him in confusion. He looked at me finally. “Uh…for being a pain in the exhaust port?” he told me, raising one side of his glasses. Exhaust port? I looked at him with a weird expression. I did not have one clue what he was talking about but I decided to let that one slip by. “Um…there’s no reason to apologize Soundwave” I replied, still a bit confused on what he told me. I nudged myself closer to Soundwave and awkwardly patted his shoulder with my hoof. “If anything I should be apologizing” I said, lowering my head. “I didn’t mean to slam the door on you or anything, it’s just that…I was tired, you know?” I looked at shockwave as he looked at me. We were staring into each other at eye level. Soundwave nodded his head and looked at the amp in front of me. “You were frustrated. It’s understandable why you did so…” Soundwave replied still looking at the amps. I guess he didn’t want to look at me right now. “…and I might have pushed your boundaries. I shouldn’t have done that” Soundwave added looking at me. I smiled lazily at the robot in my music room. For some reason, he’s beginning to change. He’s not as serious as he was before. I always wondered what went on in his mind, because he was always changing himself. There was literally more to him, than meets the eye. “Thanks Soundwave, I kinda’ appreciate that” I said holding out my hoof so he could pound it. Oh wait I remembered that he won’t- I felt cold metal touch the bottom of my hoof. Soundwave just gave me a hoof! I looked at him in shock as he pulled back his arm from hoofing me. Soundwave gave me an odd look. “What?” he asked puzzled. “Dude you are just too awesome!” I exclaimed, throwing my arms around Soundwave. Hopefully I didn’t wake up Octavia, but I just couldn’t hold in my excitement. Soundwave wasn’t as cold as I expected him to be. He was sort of warm, but there were the occasional dead zones. I finally loosened my grip from him and plopped back down on the floor. I blushed for hugging Soundwave for too long. “Sorry, I just…kind of…” I started but stopped when I felt a comfortable feeling run from the top of my head to the back. It had a warm feeling and it really calmed me down. I looked to my side to see Soundwave petting my mane. It was really weird, I’ll give you that, but it was so relaxing, I just couldn’t say no to it. I was beginning to fall asleep thanks to Soundwave’s grooming of my mane, so I eventually gave in. I propped myself a bit closer to Soundwave while he still groomed my mane and laid my head down on top of my forelegs. I closed my eyes and let myself drift off into a nice relaxing sleep, but not before I said one last thing to my new best friend. “I’m glad you didn’t leave…” and with that I nudged my head side to side and drifted off into sleep. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wow, the events that followed were not expected. They did however go in a positive direction, so I have no regrets. As I sat there petting a recharging (sleeping) Vinyl’s hair, I quickly recalled my thoughts that led me to my decision. I now considered Vinyl to be my friend, for even though she does certain things I have no intel on, I seemed to have learned things from her. She has taught me things about this place, I may not require soon, but she has been able to keep me well informed. It also seemed a bit logical to give her an ‘apology’ for winding her up a bit. These other horses tended to do it when they feel they’ve made an error, and by me leaving Vinyl Scratch’s side, I believe I would have made a critical error. I sat there in the corner of the room with my resting companion, contemplating on what will become of me in this world. I knew Vinyl’s Nightmare Moon story was fabricated, so I had the chance to leave whenever I could. But I felt held back by one obligation; Vinyl Scratch’s performance. If I was to leave, I would leave her to fend for herself in this ‘competition’ (even though it is her fault for tampering with my voice). Still, I felt a strange feeling in my circuits telling me to help her out. It proposes it will turn out the best for the both of us and my circuits haven’t been wrong before. I continued to pat the unicorn who stirred in her sleep, watching her as she slept. I narrowed my visor down to the symbol by the side of the unicorn and noticed it was a musical note. Reasonable since she had a particular taste for music. I just wondered how these horses managed to gain these marks abruptly. Was it in their genetics? I lifted my hand off of Vinyl Scratch and laid my head on the wall behind me. Only one major question burned in my servos though and that was the one I needed to know the answer to. How will I able to truly assist Vinyl Scratch in the ‘competition’? My transformation cog is apparently fried so I’m rendered in my cybertronian mode. I can’t show myself in front of those horses or I’ll be taken down in moments (not to mention what will come after for bringing as many horses as I could with me). I lifted my hand and wiped my visors. This surely was going to be a difficult situation and I had no apparent clue around it. I could sure use a dose of synthetic energon right about now (I’ll take any form I can at this moment). … Wait; actually there is a way around. I don’t know if the side effects I’ve suffered from might affect the process but if I’m successful I might be able to… The unicorn shifted her body and brought her hooves on top of her optics. She grumbled for a while as I looked at her resting. She never lay still when she rested, oddly. Her horn then radiated a vibrant color and after grumbling a bit more, I heard a small flick and the lights shut off around us. Well, I knew at least one ability unicorn’s possessed now. Unfortunately, I had to learn it by allowing it to shut us off in darkness. Well then I guess I’m going to have to carry out my idea tomorrow. Hopefully Primus has pity on me and grants me an effect free process. Also, to be honest I’d rather slip into recharge then dwell on questions the entire moon cycle. I shifted my body a bit as well, my back strut posted up against the wall, and finally finding a comfortable position to rest on. I narrowed my visors down to Vinyl Scratch who still rested by my side. She seemed to have stopped shifting and was resting rather comfortably now. Was it possible she felt safe with me? I most certainly hoped she didn’t. I was not one to feel safe with and I hope she came to realize that soon. With those final thoughts in my head, I decided to let my senses leave my body as my visors began to dim. Before I slipped into recharge I had two final thoughts in my mind that I have been pondering on ever since they’ve entered my mind. Space Bridge travelling. Why did I feel its presence earlier? And if it truly was that feeling, why was I feeling it here? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carnivac, Drift and Shockwave have been following the four changelings for hours. The M-UGPS has fully downloaded the schematics for the area which has been the only pleasant thing to occur to the three cybertronians. Carnivac walked directly behind the Changelings, making sure none of them tried to be slick and wander off from the group. Shockwave walked behind for the whole trip. The Changelings led Shockwave and his followers to a designated set of trees, which looked slightly modified, a bit wider and designed to look much like a gate. Carnivac and Drift stood by the side of Shockwave, waiting for their next orders. The Changelings looked behind them, tired from there long journey. Oddly, the changelings had no apparent business out there in the wilderness; instead they were blabbering to Shockwave about ‘the forest changing on its own’. Shockwave had no regard for illogical excuses and shrugged off everything the Changelings told him about this forest. It was obvious they had no way of keeping track of where they went. “Where are we?” Shockwave interrogated the Changelings. The Changelings looked at one another, trying to decide which one would be the one to speak up this time. Carnivac and Drift eyed each other, deciding what was going to go down once they entered the unknown area. “This is where…our queen…” one of them piped up but was quickly cut short. “Then don’t float about, introduce us” Carnivac smirked, his fangs dry with the blood of his previous meal. The Changelings immediately turned to the trees and bashed it open, even though it was designed to open up with ease, out of fear of becoming the beast’s next victim. Drift immediately face palmed and narrowed his optics to the pretender. “Great, how do you think the queens going to react when she sees we scared the scrap out of her scouts?” Drift grumbled shaking his head. Carnivac growled. “I could care less how she reacts, I-” “Enough Carnivac. My patience for you is running real thin.” Shockwave stated, cutting off Carnivac’s sentence and lifting his blade up to the side menacingly. Carnivac looked at the blade uneasily, knowing the scientist will not stand down from his word. “Fine, but I honestly doubt the queen is going to believe how one of their scouts are missing while they were followed by three mysterious strangers…” Carnivac retorted. “…one of them, who so happens to have that scout’s blood on their hands!” Shockwave looked away from the pretender and peered into the gates which the Changelings carelessly bashed inwards. What the scientist saw was unbelievable. Before him were dozens of Changelings, flying and walking about amongst paved out trees. All were grumbling, laughing, and communicating amongst one another. They looked weak and tired, an opportunity that Carnivac would easily seize. Shockwave turned back and pointed at Carnivac. “You will stay here unless things do not go according as planned” Shockwave ordered glaring at the beast and motioning his arm over at Drift to follow. Carnivac glowered but obeyed the scientist’s order. “Why do you even want to propose an alliance with these creatures anyways” Drift whispered to Shockwave as the two walked into the gate. The Changelings within the gate immediately fell silent once they saw the two figures walking in cautiously. “Because Drift…if I am to come here on my own terms and deal with a particular cybertronian, I might as well seize an opportunity such as this” Shockwave replied, descending down a paved road leading from the entrance to the heart of the village. They were no structures around the area, save for one particular one. “What opportunity would that be?” Drift added, looking at each pair of blue optics staring in their direction. It seemed almost impossible to tell each one apart, so they could not tell whch pairs of Changelings were their ‘escorts’. “With an abundant amount of synthetic energon, I’m sure we can make good use of it” Shockwave stated, looking away from the Changelings and looking straight ahead of him. He seemed to be looking at a tall structure of some sort, which had a tall sleek black figure resting on the top. It had what appeared to be blue ragged hair and a raged set of wings. It appeared to be a larger version of these other Changelings, but this one had a pair of green optics and a larger horn perched upon its cranium. Surrounded by the strange creature were four floating objects which seemed to be communicating with it. Shockwave knew who they were and so did Drift apparently. “Scrap, they ratted us out” Drift grumbled lowly, still looking around at the Changelings, who were now muttering amongst one another. Shockwave looked back to the exit, thinking the exact same thing, but he knew if he was to run, they would immediately attack him. He knew what they encountered were scouts, but he was not yet ready to test the skills of their warriors. Drift on the other hand, was beyond capable of taking out these flying pests with ease. “Stand your ground, Drift” Shockwave mumbled back. Drift shot him a worried gaze with his optics. “Doc you must be out of your…” Drift began, but was cut short as he followed Shockwave’s gaze. The tall sleek slender figure began to flutter along with the four Changelings by its side down to the newcomers. Drift stood his ground defensively and Shockwave stayed on guard in case they were planning on trying anything. The fact that this figure was coming forth to them though, showed Shockwave some promise in a possible alliance. As the figures ascended closer, the Changelings around Shockwave and Drift began to disperse, leaving a large gap in front of the two. Drift and Shockwave looked around in confusion, but the act struck Shockwave in the servos. This tall sleek figure was their queen. The queen and her four subjects positioned themselves in front of the two outsiders and the queen quickly shook her mane. She looked up at them with her green luminous optics. She was frightened by the sight of these cybertronians, for she has never seen anything like them before, but she did not wish to show it in front of these beings. “Hello outsiders…” she said rather eerily yet, very feminine. Drift couldn’t help but shudder at how the voice reminded him of one particular fembot he took care of long ago. Shockwave stood silent and waited for the queen to make her next move. “I am Chrysalis, queen of the Changelings” she boasted proudly, stomping her hoof into the ground. Drift looked at the queen with a puzzled look, wondering where the scrap the Space Bridge took him. Shockwave on the other hand played his part perfectly, kneeling on one knee and bowing forward. Drift looked at the scientist in shock. ‘He is truly losing his servos now!’ Drift thought to himself. Chrysalis cackled, lifting her head upwards and closing her eyes. Drift was too fixated on Shockwave because he knew Shockwave did not waste his time on such pathetic actions if there was no meaning behind it. “Well, it most certainly feels good to be praised by someone different for a change…” the queen remarked, flashing her eyes slyly with a flirtatious grin. Drift shuddered while the Changelings stood around and remained in silence. “…but that is not of my concern right now” she quickly added, changing her tone. Drift shot his optics in Shockwave’s direction. He still seemed to be prone. “What I want to know is how you came across my Changelings” Chrysalis shot, looking at Drift. Drift tried to recollect on the story the group forced the Changelings into saying. Unfortunately, they did not collaborate on how many Changelings would actually be here. Drift opened his mouth to speak but did not get to even mutter a word. “As we wandered through the forest we found them” Shockwave said, looking up at the queen with his huge single optic. The queen looked back a bit nervously now, but still managed to trudge on. “Were you well aware that I sent five of my Changelings instead of four?” Chrysalis added lifting a brow in Shockwave’s direction. Drift immediately turned his gaze over at the four changelings by their queens’ side. ‘If any of those slagging creatures told, I’ll have all their heads on a stick’ Drift though to himself. “When we found them, we only saw four of them” Shockwave added shaking his head. “I must have miscounted, but these were the only Changelings we found” “Ah, then I guess my Changelings miscounted as well!” Chrysalis snapped. The air suddenly grew still. “My scouts over here told me there were three of you, yet I do not see a third!” Drift cursed in his servos and Shockwave brought himself up from the ground. The Changelings watched the two robots with suspicion, growling and snickering to themselves. Shockwave knew he couldn’t blow this opportunity now. “My third companion is keeping guard outside the gate because we thought it would be reasonable to offer you creatures…’temporary’ protection’ ” Shockwave asserted, waving his pulse cannon at the gates behind him. "it was the least we could do for your Changelings offering their hospitality" Shockwave added. Chrysalis looked at the weapon attached to the newcomers arm, fearing what it was capable of doing. The Changelings still spoke amongst one another while Chrysalis eyed Drift and Shockwave suspiciously. She thought to herself about the dangers these newcomers would bring if she allowed them to stay here. Then again, she thought about the dangers that would come for not letting these creatures here. She didn’t want to risk the chance too soon, so she decided to get more out of her visitors. “What is it that you want with us…” Chrysalis stopped, trying to imply an intro from the two. “I am Shockwave” the scientist stated directing his hand over his chest. He then pointed his palm over at the assassin next to him. “This is my assistant…” “…Drift. That’s all you need to know” he stated dryly. Shockwave gave Drift a stern look and directed his cannon over at the gate. “That is my guardian, Carnivac” The four Changelings shuddered at the sound of the murderer’s name. Chrysalis lifted a brow at their strange behavior and began to grow more suspicious. “What do you want?” the queen asked a second time. Drift snorted and shook his head, knowing that Shockwave’s next words would be a bigger joke than calling Starscream successful. “I want to propose an alliance” the scientist suggested. Chrysalis’ eyes once again shut close and she laughed harshly. Drift chuckled a bit as well. “You expect me to team up with you just like that? What is it that you can give to me?” she chuckled staring into Shockwave’s eye. Shockwave shook his head and began to laugh as well. Drift, Chrysalis and the Changelings all looked at the chuckling scientist in shock. “I could say the same to you…” Shockwave started. Chrysalis attempted to cut him off but he trudged on. “…together we can be more unified. Surely there is something you desire that you cannot get…” “Everything I need is here!” Chrysalis snapped, glaring at Shockwave. “Why does it seem as if your subjects are starving then?” Shockwave asked, reaching out his arm and pointing it out to each Changeling in the crowd. Chrysalis knew what she really wanted. She did not want her minions starving, as well as herself. Shockwave saw the worried look on the queen’s face and knew he had her by the throat. “..And there is something we desire, but we cannot seem to get to” Shockwave continued from his previous proposal. The queen looked at all her minions, each of them with a hungered look in their eyes. She was still full from the love that banished her from Equestria, which were both a blessing and a curse to her, but her subjects were not… “What is it that you want from us?” Chrysalis grumbled, knowing this proposal might be her only ticket out of here. Drift lifted a brow, knowing that Shockwave once again manipulated another set of tribals to do his bidding. ‘I’m going to have to start calling him Unicron soon’. “We ask of you for two things…” Shockwave started, picking up two of his fingers as if he was instructing a protoforms. Chrysalis paid attention to the scientist in front of her. They were roughly around the same size. “I ask that you help me seek out an old friend of mine” Shockwave continued. “He wondered into this dimension, and I was hoping to seek him out…” Chrysalis laughed dryly and shook her head. “If he is not here in this forest, there is no way to get to him. Once you are here there is no way out” Drift chuckled and reached to his side. “Yeah well, I reckon you guys don’t have an M-UGPS like us” he said, lifting it up and showing the queen the contents of the machine. Chyrsalis looked at it in shock. “What is that contraption?” she asked amazed. The Changelings looked at it in awe as well. “It’s much similar to a map” Shockwave explained. “Yeah, a map blessed by Primus” Drift added snorting. He out the gadget to his side once again and looked at the queen. The queen shot another puzzled look, wondering who was this Primus he spoke of. Shockwave turned back to the queen. “With that tool, I can assure you freedom from this wretched place” he assured her. The queen immediately let her eyes light up with joy at the idea of leaving this cursed place and returning to Equestria to wreak havoc once again! Her excitement quickly diminished though at the remembrance of a second offer. “As for the second thing?” she asked, still suspicious. “We ask to borrow your Changelings for…” “No” Chrysalis shot glaring at Shockwave. Drift face palmed. ‘He had to drop the ball on that one’. “My Changelings are one of my subjects. If any are to get hurt…” Shockwave and Drift cut off their audio sensors and looked at each other nervously. They thought what she would really do if she found out their partner just tore one of her Changelings to shreds. Shockwave snapped out of his thoughts and immediately moved on. “We have no intention to hurt your Changelings. All we ask is they aid us in finding my ‘target’ and I can run some tests on them” Shockwave pleaded. Yes, pleaded (in a sense). One of the Changelings snorted. The queen gave the two Decepticons a puzzled look. What did they really want with her minions? “What can you possibly gain from them?” “We have reason to believe your biological properties resemble ours, and for that we can be able to creeat a new compound which can aid us both. Chrysalis looked at the scientist dumbly. ‘What did he just say?’ “Oh for crying out loud. Your little buddies share our blood, kind of, so we want to borrow some so we can make weapons!” Drift exclaimed throwing up his hands. Chrysalis was confused. They wanted to make weapons? For what? “Fine…I will allow my Changelings to assist you…” She stated, a little too rationally. She then lifted her hoof to her chin. “…On two conditions though.” Shockwave nodded and Drift stood silent. The Changelings muttered once again, scared to be picked and thrown with these scary creatures once again. “You must supply me with whatever you two create so I can use it to my will. Secondly, you will not use every single Changeling I have…” “Oh don’t worry your highness!” Drift shot sarcastically. He walked over to the queen’s side and nudge his arm at the four Changelings still by her side. “We just want these four” he added. Chrysalis gave him a really suspicious look, so Drift knew he had to play his part. “I just grew so attached to them, I just wanted to team up with these guys again!” he shouted with false enthusiasm, hugging one of the flying Changelings. The Changeling whimpered in the giant robot’s arms. Chrysalis turned back to Shockwave and flicked her mane to the side. “So those are my terms. You agree to those and I will agree to mine. Do I make myself clear?” Chrysalis barked, approaching Shockwave menacingly. If Shockwave had a mouth he would be smirking right now. “Oh, completely” he responded. Chrysalis gave him a satisfied smile and walked to the middle. She turned to the four Changelings that were once by her side and nudged her head over at the two new allies. The Changelings all lowered their heads, knowing they could not disobey their queen and slowly approached to the sides of Drift. Chrysalis prodded herself up in the middle and turned to Shockwave. “Are you ready to start your first agreement Shockwave?” She shouted from a distance. Drift reached to his side and pulled out the M-UGPS. Chrysalis grinned and began to speak out to her subjects. “My Changelings, it has been a while since we have been banished from the land of Equestria due to the very thing we crave”. Changelings grumbled and snorted in unison. “We’ve been stranded here in this miserable place, forced to live out our remainder of our lives in banishment. Well no more my minions!” she shouted waving her hoof into the air. “Thanks to our newcomers, we now have a way out of this dreaded forest, and we can return to Equestria to start anew!” The Changelings all shouted in glee and joy. Except for the four by Drift. They stood there watching in silence, praying to Chrysalis they won’t end up like their former friend. Drift saw that most of the other Changelings were too occupied into listening their queen speak so he seized the moment. “You really think it’s a good idea to aid these tribals Shockwave?” Drift asked quizzedly. When he saw Chrysalis he sort of thought of a black, feminine, four legged shockwave. Shockwave only sighed and looked at Drift dead in the optics. “I do not care what she does to this world, Drift. All I want from this world is to see Soundwave suffer slowly and painfully while I bring myself back some…” he stopped short and looked at the four floating Changelings. “…Live samples.” “Let us begin the journey to a new beginning!” Chrysalis shouted, finishing her speech and glaring into Shockwave with her huge green eyes. With a nod, Shockwave turned back up the way he came, leading the group of Changelings to Primus knows where. Drift came alongside Shockwave with the M-UGPS in his hand to lead them to the exit. “Well, it seems we have a long walk ahead of us boss” Drift remarked, passing by a confused Carnivac. “What the scrap?” he exclaimed gleefully. “Okay I’ll take that one and that one, Oh wait that one looks-” “CARNIVAC!” Drift shouted kicking the pretender in the side. They did not come this far to get there cover blown by a savage beast. Carnivac yelped and growled at Drift but was quickly pushed forward by Shockwave. “Move.Now” Shockwave stated viciously. Carnivac moved on without another word. Chrysalis walked up to Shockwave’s side now, keeping her Changelings right behind her. “Where are we going?” she asked puzzled. Shockwave turned his direction to Drift who looked down at the M-UGPS. “Well it’s not till the next dozen miles or so but it says are next destination is…” Drift started but looked at the M-UGPS oddly. “What the scrap kind of place is named Hoofington?”