The first thing Twilight Sparkle felt as she regained her consciousness was an extremely severe headache. It was caused by not just the impact of her body hitting the ground, but also the immense magnitude of information now stored in her brain. It was as if she knew everything there was to know about the history of Cybertron: How it first came to be, what happened during its golden age, why the civil war began in the first place, and exactly what caused the degradation of the entire planet. She was in possession of all this knowledge and it was really beginning to hurt her head as she opened her eyes.
Though her vision was blurry at first, it eventually became much more clear in a couple of seconds and the first thing she was able to make out was a crouched Bumblebee with a concerned look on his face. Once he saw that she was awake, he sighed in relief and said, "Thank Primus, you're alright. You gave us all a great deal of scare back there."
As he gently held Twilight's right hoof to help her get back up, she drowsily asked, "What happened? Did we win?"
"I guess so", replied Bumblebee. "I mean, whatever you did, it made a huge wave of energy that tore apart the entire Decepticon army, and patched up me and doc real good. It's almost like I'm fresh off the assembly line. Sure, the AllSpark is pretty much gone right now, but hey, we saved the universe, right? That should be enough reason for celebration."
Suddenly, Twilight's eyes widened with fear and she worriedly asked, "Wait! Where is Optimus? Is he okay? I didn't hurt him in any way, did I?"
"Whoa! Whoa! Easy!". Bumblebee exclaimed as he tried to calm her down. "Everything's okay. The boss bot is gonna be fine. Ratchet's got him. In fact, he's helping him get up as we speak. I'm sure both of them want to congratulate you for that stunt you pulled. Why don't we go and see if that's the case. Do you have enough strength to flap your wings right now?"
Twilight managed to calm herself and replied, "I don't think so. Both what I just did and the fall afterwards really took their toll on me. I'm afraid I'm too tired and injured to fly at this point."
"That's okay", Bumblebee said with a soft smile on his face. "We can just walk there. I can help you, if you want."
Upon hearing that, Twilight smiled too and responded with a nod as she began to take her first few steps since waking up, with Bumblebee carefully observing her every move.
Then, out of nowhere, a huge blast of energy hit the unsuspecting Autobot in the torso and sent him flying nearly forty feet backwards. Twilight could only scream "NOOO!" in both shock and despair before the source of the blast immediately came near her, and revealed itself to be none other than Megatron in his vehicle mode.
He quickly transformed back into his robot mode and punched the ground right beside Twilight in pure rage, causing her to lose her balance and fall down. He then shouted with a voice that shook the earth, "What have you done?! JUST WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! I can no longer feel the Dark Energon inside me, which means you have completely eradicated it and taken half of my strength from me! What is worse, you have destroyed the only thing in the whole universe that could allow my people to not just be reborn, but also expand to places we only heard in legends! Now, all because of you, they will never live again and my glorious new empire will never come to fruition! I hope you're very proud of what you've accomplished, because I am about to crush that pride, ALONG WITH EVERY SINGLE PART OF YOUR PATHETIC BODY!"
Immediately after that, he raised his right leg and prepared stomp on the defenseless Twilight. As she cowered in immense terror, however, Megatron took some machine gun fire to his left shoulder, and this made him lose his balance and fall to the right. As Twilight opened her eyes and looked around to see what just happened, she became overjoyed to discover the identity of her savior: Optimus Prime with his ion blaster on his right arm, a very determined look on his face, and without a single Dark Energon crystal on his chassis.
"Megatron, this is your first and only warning", he said as his opponent was recovering from the attack. "Get away from my friend, Twilight Sparkle."
As Megatron got back on his servos, he exclaimed, "What madness is this?! After the heinous crime she committed against our people, you still consider her a friend?! YOU BRING SHAME UPON US ALL, PRIME!"
"On the contrary, she just saved everyone in the universe from your wrath", Optimus confidently replied. "Yes, our world may not be revived right now, but that does not mean we cannot find another way to do that. Besides, every other world is now free from oppression and it's all thanks to a little equine I've grown close to these past few days. She may not be as physically strong as you or me, but she more than makes up for that with the strength in her heart. I am proud to call any bot or creature with that kind of strength my friend."
As Twilight was shedding tears of joy upon hearing all this, Megatron screamed in rage and exclaimed, "ENOUGH! I will not stand for such insolence! If you still side with her and her fellow insects, then you shall join them in extinction!"
As soon as he finished that sentence, he charged towards Optimus while firing several shots from his fusion cannon. However, Optimus rolled towards left and transformed into his vehicle mode before driving towards Megatron and rammed into his left leg, knocking him down once again. Before Megatron could get a chance to get back up, he transformed back into his robot mode, grabbed Megatron's head with his left hand, and began to repeatedly punch him in the face with his right fist. After delivering seven punches, he lifted Megatron's entire body with both hands and threw him a good twenty feet away.
Megatron had just gotten back up and was struggling to maintain his balance when Optimus came running towards him while shooting at him with his ion blaster, which nearly shredded his armor and made it even harder for him to keep standing. Once he was close enough, Optimus first kneed and then side kicked his opponent in the chest, knocking him down yet again. Right after that, he transformed his ion blaster back to his right hand, used both of his hands to grab Megatron's right leg, spun him around in the air four times, and finally threw him another twenty feet away.
As he struggled as hard as he could to get back on his servos, Megatron realized that he was not going to win this fight. He was severely damaged, and Optimus was fighting with a surprisingly huge amount of willpower. However, he was not about to just surrender and let these revolting pests take him as their prisoner. If he was destined to fall this day, then he was going to fall fighting for his dear life. Therefore, he took a fighting stance and prepared for the next attack.
Suddenly, his hopes for victory grew exponentially as he heard an unexpected transmission that said, "Lord Megatron, can you hear me? This is Shockwave. I have brought reinforcements to assist you in battle. We are going to land shortly."
He quickly pressed the button on the left side of his head and replied, "Very glad to hear that, Shockwave. Make your landing as soon as possible. I am injured and surrounded by the enemy."
"Understood, my lord. Just hold tight and preserve your remaining energy. Shockwave out."
As the transmission ended, Megatron saw Optimus slowly advancing towards him and pretended to be afraid by saying, "No more, Optimus Prime! Grant me mercy! I beg of you!"
"You, who are without mercy, now plead for it?", asked a confused Optimus. "I thought you were made of sterner stuff."
Then, he noticed something in the sky and immediately recognized the Decepticon ship Shockwave was in command of. He knew that he could not allow this ship to land and release enough soldiers to turn Equestria into ashes. So, he began to contemplate as hard as he could in order to come up with a solution and during that time, Megatron snickered and declared, "It appears you have only delayed the inevitable, Prime. Dozens more of my loyal followers are about to help me decimate the planet once and for all!"
Finally, Optimus found a solution that was rather risky, but could potentially work. Therefore, he clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and replied with great determination, "Then, let us give them something to remember this world by."
As soon as he finished his sentence, he charged towards Megatron and once he was close enough, he uppercutted the Decepticon leader so hard that he flew upwards and landed right on the windshield of the Decepticon ship, causing every single on the ship to gasp in utter shock. A handful of seconds later, he fell down and made an extremely heavy landing on the ground, creating a crater in the process. While the soldiers were trying to comprehend what just happened, Shockwave was silently staring at his fallen leader until Onslaught came beside him and asked, "What should we do, sir? Shall I send a gunship to retrieve him?"
In response, Shockwave turned to the soldiers and announced, "There will be no rescue operation. Megatron has once again underestimated his enemies and this time, his overconfidence cost us the AllSpark, which is the very thing we require to revitalize Cybertron. I will tolerate this no more. Return to your posts. We ascend and return to space immediately."
"Ascend? What about Lord Megatron?", asked Onslaught. "We can't just leave him here."
"We can and we will", Shockwave replied. "He is no longer qualified to lead us to victory against the Autobots. Therefore, it is only logical that I take his place. Contact the rest of our forces. Let them know that I am now their new leader."
"But, sir, we both know that Megatron is known to have come back from a lot worse than this. When he does, he will not be happy about this new chain of command. Besides, even if he doesn't come back, you still have Starscream and Soundwave to deal with. They'll, no doubt, be furious over this news."
"Indeed. That is exactly why we are setting a course to Velocitron. We shall help Starscream capture the Autobot outpost and convince him to accept me as the new supreme leader of the Decepticon faction. Soundwave will fall in line shortly after that. Now, the crew must soon prepare for evacuation. Once we reach the planet's exosphere, we will set this ship to self-destruct so that Optimus Prime cannot use it for space travel. Then, we fly to Velocitron aboard the Nemesis."
As Shockwave walked back to his chair, Onslaught sighed deeply and muttered to himself, "Primus help us all."