Friendship is Magic, When All Are One

by RobotFox


NAIL, Decepticon, Autobot, or Equestrian

Chapter 11 NAIL, Decepticon, Autobot, or Equestrian?

Starscream made it about a few hundred yards away from Ponyville, not facing the direction where the Decepticons escaped or really anywhere of relevance. The closest reference point was the point between Everfree Forest and Ponyville but both places were a good distance away.

The entire walk there before he sat down was almost complete silence. The audio to come from the seeker and pegasus was the loud steps the that came from the walk. Neither of them talked to each other. Starscream didn’t have much to say and Rainbow Dash didn’t really want to attempt. Due to Starscream’s recent attitude and silent treatment act with her she didn’t really want to attempt it at this point and time.

Neither of them seemed to be interested in talking much anyway. In a way, each other’s presence was merely social comfort. The fact that the one they were currently seeing was right next to them. While Starscream didn’t seem to notice this pleasure, he did know that he didn’t want her to leave him now. With everything literally falling apart and all his suspicions being proven correct, he really didn’t know how to keep himself from just going into battle and getting himself killed.

Now Starscream was smart enough to know that wouldn’t solve anything but when his anger, excitement, cockiness, or frustration got the best of him before, and he has done some pretty stupid things because of it. Even he couldn’t deny most of these instances were nothing less of foolish. He was surprised he even still functioned because of it.

Rainbow Dash merely was on his shoulder using the red protrusion by his head as a thing to lean on. She really didn’t know what to think of him right now. She understood that he was incredibly stressed but he really was acting strange. Starscream was one for just ranting on and on, but now he was just completely silent. Aside from at the town after the battle, the seeker didn’t say much to her really.

The area they were at was shining a bright orange, showing that the day was changing. This more than likely meant that Luna was back in Canterlot, perhaps preparing for the worse from the Decepticons. Not a bad thing, Megatron can literally call in as many men as possible.

After about twenty minuets of complete silence, Rainbow finally broke the silence “You know Screamer, I thought ... it was pretty cool how you saved your friend out there. I mean I know you’d do the same for me and everyone in Ponyville but I never took you for one to well…”

The seeker didn’t really react to what she said other than a simple huff. He merely continued to look out at the forest that was before them and letting the light rays reflect off him “Skyfire is essential…”

“That’s it?” She really didn’t believe what she heard really “But I thought you were friends?”

The seeker made an internal chuckle “That doesn’t exist anymore…” the seeker turned his toward the ground “That was the past. Skyfire may have been my only friend back in the day but… we took separate paths. If I didn’t lose him in the storm I probably would’ve been a different bot. But… it’s over. I went over to the Decepticons and Skyfire joined the Autobots, our previous relationship was lost within the storm, I changed and he in a way changed as well being with the Autobots.”

The pegasus knew Starscream was well… Starscream, but she expected him not to be so direct about it. He barely seemed to care. Was he really just that blunt about it, did he truly not care about them that much? “You mean you really just want them to leave… just like that… you don’t even want to… you know…”

“No.” he said firmly “In case you haven’t been paying attention, I was never on the Autobots side! I just know that if I don’t work along side them the Decepticons will win!”

The blue pony was able to tell that this having them cool down was not working. After having a few episodes like this, it was hard to tell if talking was a good thing. But as much as she hated to admit it, he was right. He was constantly warning them and they just blew them off as just something that A: Never happened; or B: Was not all that big of a deal. But from what she could understand, it wasn’t going to be easy this time and ‘easy’ wasn’t necessarily a walk in the park either.

“So after this is done…”

“I will help them get back to Earth or Cybertron, I really don’t care which.” He answered quickly with little hesitation “I may not be shooting at them anymore but as long as they’re here, you’re just as more likely to be attacked when I am still being around here.” He sighed in a vain attempted to calm down “Rainbow Dash, there is so much I have yet to tell you about me… I may have changed… but it doesn’t excuse what I have done and in the end… and they won’t either.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked confused “I thought you said they were going to protect us?”

“It’s not that simple. After millions of stellar cycles of war, most of us have turned to a simple black and white!” he groaned thinking about the sickness of the war. After six months of being completely out of the war zone, he slowly learned all of this, in a way, he learned a lot about himself as well “Good, evil, neutral, Autobot, Decepticon, NAIL, we don’t even know what the difference is anymore! All we know are the factions; in the end, all we know is that we are all against each other.”

The pegasus looked at him from the side. She knew Starscream didn’t tell her much about the Decepticons other than his relationship with Megatron and the other Decepticons. He never went in too much detail as to what he did in the Decepticons aside from his positions. She knew a bit about Starscream’s life before the Decepticons though. Twilight knew a bit more than her because she really was curious about Cybertron and things with the Cybertronians.

In a way she felt kind of jealous of Twilight and even Celestia. Starscream told them more about himself and his kind than he has to her. Granted, they asked but at the same time Starscream seemed to be more comfortable talking to Twilight about things like that. In fact, he started talking to her before her, aside from their little encounter when the Decepticons first invaded.

Starscream turned to her again this time he seemed to be a little calmer and not angry like he has been for awhile “I’m… sorry. But this isn’t as simple as you and I want it to be.”

“What? Is burying the hatchet that hard?” she asked with a bit of attitude but Starscream either didn’t catch it or didn’t care at the moment.

“War, corrupts us. The Autobots don’t even know it. The only reason why I learned this is because I was away from the war for so long. Megatron will never give up and Optimus will always be there to oppose him.” He turned away “And that’s why I want them to leave, if they stay, the war will only spread. And I want nothing to do with it anymore.”

“So tell them.” Rainbow exclaimed.

“What?”

“Tell them what you’ve learned. I mean come on Screamer, I’m sure you can do that.”

The seeker’s calmed expression turned into a glare at the pegasus to which caught her off guard “What did I just say!” he growled “The Autobots only see me as a Decepticon! Do you really think they’re going to listen to me? I’m willing to bet they won’t even listen to you organics because you trust me!”

At this point Rainbow Dash off of his shoulder and flew in front of his face “Look Screamer! Maybe it’s you who needs to listen!”

“You’re really going to challenge that?” Starscream glared darkened.

“Listen Screamer, I may have not been on Cybertron but if hanging out with my friends taught me anything, it taught me it’s giving anyone a chance! And considering you guys aren’t shooting each other right now, I think this may be your chance.”

Starscream only continued glare as he stood up and started to walk away and ignored her. She glared at his back and was about to fly to him but the way brushed her off with his hand as he walked away, making it clear he wanted nothing to do with her at the moment.

While she was still glaring at the back of the ex-Decepticon, she couldn’t help but feel that maybe there really was more to Starscream than she thought. Despite being some-what romantically involved, she always seemed to be surprised every time Starscream seemed to show a different side of him. Since these six months were really just a few days out of the month thanks to Celestia, she really never got a chance to learn much about him. In fact, she learned the most about him the night before the battle with the Decepticons than any other day.

She usually was one to argue, especially with one like Starscream, but this seemed like if perusing this argument was going to do anything, it would lead to probably worse results. She only sighed going the opposite direction from where he was walking away and decided see what her friends were doing.

--Canterlot--

Luna turned away from the balcony she was on after the exhausting chore of lowering the sun and raising the moon. As informal as that may sound, it really did seem like just that when doing it for so many years. And the fact that all the other events that lead up to it felt like she could just easily sleep for days! But she couldn’t do that, the night was her responsibility and she was doing Celestia’s job. She had to make a weak chuckle at the thought, Celestia must’ve had it hard while she was banished.

The Night Princess sighed as she went on her bed and lay on her legs and putting her head down, this entire happening during the day really did put a number on her. Fortunately, he was hardly harmed; just a few minor burns and those were just grazed fur from laser fire. But on top of that, she was emotionally drained as well.

While able to hide it giving the speech, the entire time she worried about her sister. She sort of felt like this was a reverse situation when she was on the Moon. The only major difference was that Celestia knew where she was. She chuckled again, the thought of her banishment didn’t seem to bother her many more, and she forgave her sister as she let her return home permanently with open wings. The only thing that brought back bad memories really was Nightmare Moon.

She shuttered at the thought, the monster she created by her own hoofs, a reincarnation of her hatred, jealously, and sadness. She remembered just one morning after another thankless night she cried as she suddenly felt power surging within her. She remembered hearing a voice once or twice but she couldn’t remember what it said. She only remembered thinking with this newfound power; she would be able to get the recognition for her night.

Within time though, she noticed she wasn’t at control anymore. None of the things she said, did, or even thought were her own. She wasn’t doing things she planned or wanted. She wanted recognition for her beautiful nights, not get rid of the Day, life couldn’t survive without it. She noticed shortly before Celestia banished her. The entire thousand years she tried to break free from this but never succeeded. It wasn’t until the second shot from the Elements of Harmony broke her free from the being’s grasp. She remembered when being freed she was so weak and frail from the years of trying to break free from what was Nightmare Moon. But if she didn’t fight it, the Elements of Harmony may have killed her due to Nightmare Moon and herself almost becoming one.

Luna shook her head and wiped an idle tear with her hoof, it really was a painful experience and memory, one she’d rather forget. As she lifted her head, she noticed the always-present stuffed plush of her sister still residing there. She inwardly smiled at it once again thinking of their foalhood.

These semi-positive thoughts gave her a bit of energy to get up and leave her room. She was currently on her way back to tower where their telescope was. Hopefully, she could spy on the Decepticons. The mere thought about their enemy made her feel almost sick, stress really was getting to her. She really hoped that the Autobots are what Starscream said, and that within time, she could be more effective in both battle and the situation in general.

After returning to Canterlot and positioning the Moon, she immediately put the castle on high alert and increased security in Ponyville to both protect and watch over the Autobots. She also sent out pegasi spies to hide in the clouds and hopefully remain undetected. She also sent a letter to neighboring countries explaining the situation, but she had yet to hear back from any of them.

As she continued down the hall where her stallions were patrolling the area she came across her sister’s bedroom. She stopped and eyed at the double door curiously. While visiting her sister’s bedroom was a common thing, but she never really did she snoop with out her permission.

Since her sister left her ill-informed or at least vaguely informed, she left that she had the right to see. It may be able to help find her sister. She opened the doors using her magic and upon entering them, closed and locked them. She marveled at her sister’s bedroom. It really was an impressive feat; it was a bit bigger than Luna’s room, though Luna’s had a balcony. It had the same style though Luna’s were darker colors, as Celestia’s were more day colors respectively.

The Night Princess looked around the large room hoping to find anything that would tell her about her sister’s whereabouts. After searching though closets, drawers and a few other things she didn’t find anything of interest till she peaked beside her sister’s bed. Upon looking at the side of it, she noticed it wasn’t made. Granted, usually their maids took care of such trivial things but both Celestia and herself usually had the common courtesy to do themselves, the spell was fairly simple.

At one side of the bed she saw the little plush Luna doll. She couldn’t help but smile at the small toy; it was good to see that her sister also kept the doll for so long. And seeing it on her bed, it was nice to know that she two kept the same sentiments towards the stuff doll.

As she got to the side she gasped. What she saw was a very messy pile of all of Twilight’s and her friends Friendship reports. It didn’t look like they were read at all. Usually Celestia rolled them back up and achieved them in her own private selection. But all she saw was just a pile of paper, some of them ripped, and just tossed to the side; she was really curious why the maids didn’t do anything about that, it had to at least a few months worth of reports.

Luna couldn’t believe what she was seeing really, she knew she loved Twilight’s and her friends’ reports. She was somewhat relieved to know that Twilight was unaware of this; otherwise it would probably break her heart.

“Sister…what is wrong with you?”

The Dark Alicorn recovered from this revelation and started to peak further. After she used her hoofs to toss aside the old or damaged, in hopes to find something else, she saw something coming from the covers. Using her magic, she grabbed a hold of it and raised it from the sheets and saw it was a book, a very old book.

Now Luna has read a large number of books, due to having to be updating on the 1000 years she had missed but she couldn’t say she recalled seeing a book like this before. The cover was musky brown and the pages were orange, it looked like at one point there was a title on the door but it was washed away from age.

Curious, she opened the book with her magic and saw it was a very old personal journal; it was from a male Alicorn that again Luna wasn’t familiar with. It seemed to be a personal journey to see beyond the stars. In the early parts of the book it seemed to still be on Equestria, talking about how Equestria was actually forming, it even talked about seeing to large metal beings watching over the developing part of the world.

Later on the book it talked about a large planet like pheromone on his space travels. On one page, it showed a sketch of the planet that had claws coming from it. It was hard to believe something like that was real or even a planet. Luna wanted to call the journal fictitious but after her sister leaving abruptly, she was willing to believe anything.

“Tia, what’s happing to you?”

--Unicron--

Celestia stood at the center of the head of large being. She continued to feel the power surging through her. Slowly, her appearance was changing further. She could tell that she was growing taller and still was growing. He once following constant following mane was now fidgeting, and the color was changing into grayish, metallic hue to them. Her cutie mark also started to change; the once bright sun was now half sun and half of Unicron in planet form. Her horn also started to show a more metal look to it, she also noticed sparks of electricity coming off of it. Her fur remained the bright white color it has been but now glowed slightly, not a metallic shine but had a faint glow.

Unicron was getting closer to his robot mode form. His head looked completely restored to its former glory. The ‘skeleton’ of the gigantic being was complete and the upper body was started to regenerate to the strong opposing force he once was.

The entire time, neither Celestia nor Unicron spoke to each other. Celestia was merely allowing the energy to flow through her and change her appearance as Unicron focused on getting his body back.

As the two were both at the merging, an injured Nightmare Moon sat close by. Her mane and body still scorched from Celestia’s attack with her newfound power. She felt that it was better not to interrupt her. Celestia really was powerful, usually she could just regenerate or heal her wounds but these remained. The only one that could do that to her was Unicron himself and considering that they were merged or rather merging, she could only imagine what power she could have over her now. The Elements of Harmony probably would seem like a walk in the park! At least she could regenerate with time.

“Nightmare Moon.” Celestia called out suddenly, catching the Dark Alicorn off guard “Explain a few things to me.”

Nightmare did as told as she slowly approached her “What do you want me to explain?”

“What was it really you wanted out of my sister over me?” Celestia asked finally turning around to face the opposing Alicorn.

“Luna was more vulnerable; I thought with her weakened state, she would be to help Unicron with her power.”

“Mere manipulation? Through her current state of distress?” The Day Princess hypothesized “Surely you knew that I was stronger and more powerful than her.”

“That is why I gave her my power in order to make up for it. But her own jealously and greed made her do what she did. The power she had from me, she used it in her own will.” Celestia seemed to be confused at this point though didn’t say anything “With the power going through her head, she felt that she could use it as she wished, I was not the one who tried to make everlasting night.”

“So you merely let her take control of your power?”

“Your sister is more powerful on her own than you may think. I may have given her my power, but all the actions she did with it were of her own doing.”

Celestia stood silent for a moment then turned away as she went deep into thought. “Thank you…”

Nightmare Moon took a step back from the merging being and made a wide grin. She could also feel Unicron doing that same thing somewhere.

--Equestrian Fields--

Starscream continued on his walk away from Rainbow Dash and really anyone. As long as he didn’t run into the Decepticons, he felt safer alone than he ever had in his life. He traveled along the outskirts of Everfree Forest and chose to walk to all these places. While usually flight was a good processor reliever, he felt that taking it slow was probably more beneficial at this point and time. Besides it would probably make it harder for the others to find him.

After about twenty minutes of just meandering around the forest, he finally went inside the forest and found a small open area that reviled the moonlight within the trees. The seeker smirked as he took the opportunity to sit down there. The open space was about size of three Transformers. It was completely covered by trees and the ground was littered with flowers. This was a bit of paradise that the seeker didn’t mind having every now and again.

Really, Starscream didn’t know much about what he was going through anymore. First it started out simple, and then got more and more complicated. He was always aware of Megatron’s return, but none of them took him that seriously. Twilight partially did, making certain provisions, a shelter under the tree, and evacuation routes, but the Mayor of the town wanted nothing to do with them and Twilight didn’t really stress with them too much after, she was a busy mare after all.

Princess Luna also showed some confidence in his words when she tried to maintain some of the weapons that were used during the Decepticon invasion. That may or may not have happened whether or not he tried to warn them of Megatron’s inevitable return. All the others didn’t seem to pay much mind to them though. Fluttershy would only apologize as she got scared, Applejack and Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to take him seriously and just took it as if he was attempting to pull a prank and failing, Pinkie Pie would just freak out and make weapons out of items that couldn’t be used as effective weaponry (pastries), and he didn’t even bother with Rarity.

On top of that, he was also worrying about Celestia and possibly Unicron. Unlike with Megatron where he was more than sure that would happen, he merely had a theory…a rather justified theory. After just a conversation about nothing other than Unicron, he couldn’t help but feel that was suspicious in and of itself. How could she have known of Unicron? It wasn’t common knowledge. Heck, Cybertron itself was unaware of its existence till it came to their planet.

And this was an around disaster. Not one mare or stallion took him seriously. Sure the idea was farfetched but what if it’s exactly what he thought. His trust with Celestia was strained even before Unicron but with the conversation and her sudden disappearance, the idea never seemed more plausible.

But he couldn’t worry about that now; he had to worry about Megatron and the other Decepticons. And with little to no preparations, he felt that this was not going to end well. Even with the Autobots here, the Decepticons still had the Space Bridge, and the Autobots have no way to contact reinforcements.

The seeker sighed as he lied back on grass hoping to just to forget about everything. He didn’t even want to dwell on Rainbow Dash at this point. The notion of the mare always made Starscream wonder what he was thinking. Granted, the whole unscheduled visits were never on anyone’s mind but due to how strained it was at this point, and his and her attitude wasn’t helping, it almost made it seem impossible. He knew he cared for her deeply as they got to know each other, but ironically, he had a harder time talking to her than other ponies. He always figured that being romantically involved would ease that problem away but that wasn’t the case, there were many things that he didn’t want her to know about him.

“Never thought you were one for vegetation.”

Starscream got back into a sitting position only to see Skyfire walking through the trees and sitting next to him “How did you find me?” he asked with a sneer.

“On accident.” He answered causally “I too decided to take a walk after repairs and I saw you here and decided that perhaps we could spend a minute or two.”

“The Decepticons are just barely an Earth mile away and you want to have a casual conversation?” Starscream asked finally turning to face him.

“Sure why not. Attacking them head on wouldn’t do us any good and considering the damage the we put the Decepticons through; I don’t think they will be bothering us anytime soon.” Skyfire said still with confidence.

Starscream only shrugged a bit. It did make sense, they really did leave a number on the Decepticons, or at least enough leave them alone for a night. When Megatron went on campaigns like this, he always had to lead the battle. “I suppose, how did repairs go?”

“Nothing too great unfortunately. None of us are medics so we mostly just took care of the basic stuff; welding cracks, things like that.”

“A basic stitch job…nothing I’m not familiar to.”

Skyfire noticed that Starscream had calmed down considerably and hoped that he would explode anytime soon and tried to keep this conversation steady “Where’s Rainbow Dash? She went with you didn’t she?”

Starscream sighed as he looked back into the air “Yes, let’s just say she doesn’t quite understand the war. So we parted way, perhaps with Twilight or something.”

Skyfire nodded “I don’t understand it completely either. Even after a year into it, I still have to ask so many questions just so I can completely understand it.” He looked up into the sky as well “Makes me wish I could just go back to a scientist again.”

Starscream blinked his optic covers as he thought about that statement. He too wished he could just return to just exploring planets and not worry about this pointless war. The war changed him into a cowardly, greedy, second-in-command. “Yeah…”

Skyfire made a light chuckle “Starscream…remember when we came here millions of years ago?”

“What?” Starscream shook his head not really understanding the questioned “When we came here? We’ve been here before now?”

He shook his head “Yes, it was one of the last planets we visited planet Earth and I got the freeze treatment…”

Starscream still looked skeptical “This planet? How do you know this is one of them, majority of the planets we went to were still developing.”

“True, but I actually kept record of all the co-ordinance of all the planets we visited and according to the scans I got and my records, this is one of them we went to.”

Starscream thought for a moment, thinking of anything he could remember about the pre-history of the planet, but he really couldn’t remember.

“I remember it now, we were a distance away, and we saw them, all conversing and we saw one that looked a lot like the Princess.”

The seeker looked back at his data banks and tried to remember. Within a few moments he started to vaguely coming to this planet years ago while it was developing. He recalled seeing from a distance a ground of four legged organics and an Alicorn from a distance while also survey the nature develop from the country.

“I knew this would develop into a beautiful part of the planet.” Skyfire said suddenly.

“Yes…indeed it has…” Starscream couldn’t agree more. “What are the plans tomorrow?” changing the subject suddenly.

“According to the Princess, she said she left some spies to watch over the Decepticons and will alert us if anything goes wrong. Otherwise, were playing it by audio receptor.”