Back in Equestria, Optimus, Wheeljack, and Ratchet were in the throne room before Twilight. It’s been a day since the disappearance of Grimlock. “Optimus, when was the last time you spoke with Grimlock?” Twilight asked.
“Since yesterday. Like I told you, I spoke to him and reasoned with him to readjust his behavior. Apparently, he took my advice to heart and asked me if I give him some alone time to refresh his mind and attitude since he went through much heat lately. That was the last time I’ve heard from him.” Optimus answered.
“Grimlock can be very rough on the outside, but on the inside, he’s a good-sparked Autobot.” Wheeljack added. “I feel really sorry that he couldn’t get along with some of the ponies.”
“I feel the same way, Wheeljack.” Ratchet said. “I wish I was there with Prime to help Grimlock.”
“Don’t blame yourself, Ratchet. I’m so sorry that you couldn’t find Grimlock. But no need to worry. I sent my Royal Guard to search for him everywhere in Equestria. The Crystal Empire is on a look out for him as well. We will find him. You have my word as a princess.” Twilight replied with confiding assurance.
“I truly appreciate your consolation and optimism, Twilight. That’s the attitude we all need to have.” Optimus commended. “I do hope that all is well with our old friend.”
“Speaking of friends, have you heard word from the three other Dinobots, Swoop, Snarl, and Slag?” Wheeljack asked Prime.
“Unfortunately, I have not. They were to report their progress to me by last night. I don’t know what’s taking them so long.” Optimus said.
“Hopefully, they’ll respond soon. It’ll be a shame if they went missing too...again.” Ratchet said.
Suddenly, the front doors swiftly opened. Hound ran to the three Autobots and Twilight, “Guys, you might wanna see this! Come outside!” The Bots and Twilight looked at each other confused. Thinking it was something important, all four figures exited the throne room out of the castle and saw all the rest of the Autobots and ponies gathered. They wondered as to what it was all about.
Up in the air were five glowing orbs floating towards the crowd; even though the crowd was gazing on the orbs, the former was not the target. Jazz and Cliffjumper were the first victims of the spell as they closely followed the path of two of the orbs while beholding them non-stop. Afterwards, Ironhide was the third to fall prey to the dark influence.
Twilight immediately recognized the dark orbs. It was the same dark spell she fell victim to two years ago. “NO! GUYS!! STOP!! Resist the spell!” she shouted. But it was too late. The two last orbs finally took Ratchet and Prime. She tried to blast the orbs, but it was no use.
Optimus, Ratchet, Ironhide, Jazz, and Cliffjumper struggled to free themselves from the black tendrils that bound their arms and legs. Suddenly, the five orbs that bound them united into one orb and turned into a large mirror that displayed the head of Shockwave. He evilly chuckled.
“SHOCKWAVE!!” Cliffjumper screamed in terror. “You’re the one behind this?!”
“Indeed. And I can’t thank you enough for being the right instruments to execute my will for the Decepticons.” Shockwave answered. All the Autobots and ponies were shocked to see the Decepticon scientist via the mirror. “Optimus, you and four of your most trusted warriors will now take orders from me and you five will join me in my conquest of planet...earth.”
“Never, Shockwave!! As long as my spark functions, we’ll never join the Decepticons in harming the innocent and taking what’s not theirs!” Optimus defied.
“Oh, but you will.” Shockwave shot back with malice. The mirror then turned back into black orbs and all five of them completely engulfed the five Autobots while they screamed in pain. It took a whole minute for them to fully transform and corrupt their sparks: their color scheme turned to colors black, purple, gray, and turquoise, their optics turned red, and their voices were slightly deeper. The black ooze wore off as the five bots rose on their feet. The other Autobots and ponies beheld them with terrified looks on their faces.
“There’s no escape from death and destruction.” The dark-colored Optimus said. “For I am...NEMESIS PRIME!”
“MoltenIron will destroy all these fleshlings! I will bring them down!!” the dark version of Ironhide spoke.
Nemesis Prime unsheathed his sword and impaled an Autobot soldier through his head and severed his head from his body. “Decepticons, ATTACK!!!” Nemesis ordered. MoltenIron, Hatchet, Cliffhanger, and Jinx released their weapons and began the onslaught.
“Watch out!! Take cover!!” Warpath shouted as he and the others retreated from Nemesis and the others...or at least tried to. Several other Autobots and the Royal Guard had to defend themselves against the strong firepower of the corrupted Bots. Nemesis shot dozens of the guards, grabbed one and ripped off his head with his spine hanging out dripping out blood, decapitated several other ponies with his sword, and punched another guard with his palm on the ground so hard he broke his skull fatally.
MoltenIron was confronted by the Aerialbots. They fired their missiles at him but he dodged every single one and assaulted them with his rust cannon. He blasted Fireflight and Skydive in their chests before they could touch him. They fell on the ground screaming in agony as their body parts rusted away along with their sparks. MoltenIron then unsheathed his dark energon axe before slicing Slingshot in half vertically; his energon spilled on the ground as his optics turned black. He then grabbed Air Raid’s blaster and forced him to blast Silverbolt’s right leg off. After his leg exploded, he beheaded Air Raid with his axe. Finally, he stood before the wounded Silverbolt.
“Ironhide, it’s me...your brother-in-arms!! You can’t do this!! You must...” Silverbolt begged before cut off by MoltenIron’s shot from his rust cannon.
“Die.” He finished for him. He walked away from Silverbolt’s rusting corpse.
Hatchet faced off Sideswipe and Bluestreak as well as Dragon Lord Ember and her dragons. They released all their firepower (and fire breath) on the evil Ratchet. However, their fire had no effect on his armor. He grabbed one of them named Garble and activated his hand to be fully heated. “Let me go! Please! Let me—ahhhhh!!!” he uttered an excruciating painful yelp as the intense heat overwhelmed his dragon skin. Suddenly, his entire skin melted off of his skeleton. His flesh peeled off while in flames.
“Ratchet, snap out of it!! This isn’t like you!! You’re an Autobot like us!” Sideswipe pleaded with him.
“I know you’re still alive in there somewhere!” Bluestreak added.
Unfortunately, their pleas were all in vain. Hatchet deflected their shots and pointed his heat blasters right at both of them. After three seconds, Sideswipe and Bluestreak exploded to a million pieces. He did the same for the rest of the dragons.
Cliffhanger kept shooting his large arm-mounted cannons at the civilian ponies. Big Mac rushed forward and grabbed Apple Bloom and Granny Smith away from the blasts. He took them and escaped Canterlot. Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Bulk Biceps, Derpy, and many others escaped as well unharmed. Others were unlucky.
As he reloaded his cannons, he was shot at by three large Autobots. They fired missiles at him but he grabbed one of them with his bare hand threw it at two incoming missiles, causing a massive explosion. The three Autobots covered their visors from the bright sight. After the dust settled, they looked back and Cliffhanger disappeared. Confused, they looked around to find him. Surprisingly, Cliffhanger jumped from the roof of the castle and implanted three grenades on their backs. He jumped off of each of them after he finished. They prepared to fire again but suddenly exploded while they screamed in agony.
“Too easy.” he said smugly. He transformed into his vehicle form and drove past their corpses.
Jinx activated his blades and stabbed every single pony guard he encountered. He impaled the skull of one, beheaded another, sliced another, and bashed his fists into their bodies, splattering their carcass all over the pavement. He evilly laughed while doing so.
“STOP!!” cried a familiar voice.
Jinx turned to see Starlight Glimmer, Sunburst, and Trixie standing defensively with their igniting horns. “Jazz, I know this isn’t who you are!! You got to fight Shockwave’s influence!!” Starlight pleaded.
“The only thing I’m fighting...is you pests.” Jinx spoke with scorn. He fired his electric shots at the three ponies but Starlight used her magical shield to deflect his shots. The more he fired, the weaker the shield became. Eventually, the heavy barrage of firepower destroyed the shield. Jinx approached them menacingly. All three used every spell in the book to bring him down but it was no use. Magic had no harmful effect on his armor.
“Now it’s my turn.” Jinx uttered before releasing his maces to kill them with. He swung wildly at them but they kept teleporting every time he landed a strike on where they were prior to teleportation. At the end, they escaped his onslaught, knowing they couldn’t beat him.
Nemesis Prime faced off Perceptor, Wheeljack, Jetfire, Warpath, and dozens of Autobots troops. His main goal was to kill anyone who stood against him. Thus, he carried out his goal. He grabbed his dark energon sword and sliced each trooper that came near him. He impaled another Autobot and tore off his face. He then faced Wheeljack and Perceptor. “GIVE ME YOUR FACE!!!” Nemesis demanded.
“Optimus please, listen to us!! We’re your friends! Your family! You can’t do this! What would Zeta Prime say if he saw you like this?” Wheeljack pleaded with him. As if his words didn’t mean a thing to him, Nemesis sliced Wheeljack in half and crushed his head under his feet.
“I DON’T CARE.” Nemesis said defiantly. He proceeded to kill both Perceptor and Warpath by taking off their faces and peeling off their sparks then crushing them in his hands. “I rise, YOU FALL!”
Wasting no time, Jetfire rushed to the palace and found the Mane Six and Spike taking cover behind the throne. “Princess Twilight, over here!” he called out to them.
They saw Jetfire at the doors’ entrance. They quickly rushed to him to figure out how to escape. “I have to take you guys away from Canterlot. Everypony needs to stay away from this city until we figure out how we can bring Optimus and the others back to normal!” Jetfire said.
“Yeah! Come on, y’all! Let’s get out of here!” Applejack said. Jetfire transformed in his jet mode and opened his doors for them to come in. Spike and the others entered in...except for Twilight.
“I’m going to face him.” Twilight said boldly.
“What?! He’ll kill you! You can’t—!” Spike objected until interrupted.
“That’s the risk I’m willing to take. You guys can go but I’ll deal with Optimus. No sacrifice, no victory.” Twilight said.
“Twilight...please...I don’t want to loose you too.” Fluttershy said with tears. “Discord and Bumblebee were enough. I don’t want you to die too.”
“I’ll miss you guys. If I don’t make it, I just want to let you know that you’re the best friends I’ve ever met. I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for you all.” said Twilight as she was tearing up. Her friends started to cry as well. They all had a group hug while crying.
“You got this, Twilight. I believe in you!” Pinkie said wiping off her tears.
“You got the touch and the power!” Rainbow rooted.
“Go get ‘em, darling!” Rarity said.
“Your sacrifice won’t be forgotten, Twilight.” Jetfire said. They all boarded in Jetfire’s plane mode and left Canterlot with the rest of the survivors. Twilight was all alone until Nemesis Prime burst through the doors while carrying the blood-stained heads of Thorax, Ember, Grandpa Gruff, and Pharynx. He crushed their heads under his metal feet.
“One shall stand, the rest shall fall.” he sinisterly spoke facing Twilight.