Ravage ignored the worried stares he got from the civilians of Ponyville. He kept his stride slow and easy, keeping perfect pace with his lord and master, who currently had the guard handbook levitated in front of his muzzle as he patrolled the town.
Megatron had blown off the award ceremony for the farmer, Applejack, a few days before. “A pathetic farce,” he’d said. “Let the farmer have her moment,” he’d said. But he’d been touchy enough that Starscream had gone into full-time simper mode, not baiting him even once. No Decepticon wanted to attract Megatron’s attention when he was… touchy.
None except Ravage, that is. He knew Megatron trusted him totally- and, more important, respected him. Yes, he treated him like a pet on occasion… but so long as his intelligence and cunning was recognized, Ravage liked to be petted. (And not that he’d admit it, but getting his head rubbed actually felt much better in this organic cat body than in his robotic one.) And so, for the first time, he’d chosen to patrol with his master, allowing the pathetic creatures of the town to see him directly… just so Megatron would have company.
For his part Megatron hadn’t paid any attention since his gruff acquiescence to the company. His eyes stayed glued to the book, except for a few moments when one pony or another said good morning to him. (Ravage enjoyed these: without exception, the ponies were scared out of their minds of him, barely holding back their panic as Megatron told them Ravage was perfectly under control- true- and that he wouldn’t hurt anyone unless Megatron told him to- which was much less accurate.)
But as the second patrol began these moments ended, and the black panther had reconciled himself to a day of silent walking when Megatron suddenly broke the silence. “I know what you’re thinking, Ravage,” he said. “You’re thinking I’m jealous of that Applejack female.” The silver unicorn’s face twisted into a grimace. “That my ego is so fragile that I cannot stand to see an inferior given honors which rightly belong to me.”
Not for the first time, Ravage wished for the fine voice he’d lost five or six reformats ago, before the war had put proper vocorders at a premium. He stopped, waved a paw in a what-would-you gesture, and made a feline yowl that attempted to suggest that Ravage merely thought Megatron was upset, for whatever reason, and would he like to talk about it?
Fortunately for Ravage, his master had millions of years of interpreting such gestures. “Yes, I’m angry,” he muttered, coming to a stop. “But not because Applejack got an award.” The book waved up and down in the yellow aura that Megatron’s unicorn magic created. “I’m angry because I’m trying to figure out whether or not to arrest Applejack.”
Ravage’s twist of head and confused yowl didn’t need any judge of subtle cues to interpret.
“I’m not concerned about how she stopped the cattle. It was an impressive piece of work.” The book waved again. “But them the day before yesterday she sent that blue winged pony out of control across the town. And then there was that incident at the bakery that filled the repair bay- I mean the hospital,” he growled, “with food-poisoning cases. And everyone admits Applejack was responsible in both incidents.”
Ravage growled in an interrogatory way.
“Because neither of the options appeal to me,” Megatron said. “If I arrest her, I could use it to demonstrate a tough-but-fair image. Useful in its proper time and place. But I annoy her friends, and especially her, making it harder to swing her to my side if and when I have a use for her.” Megatron raised a hoof and twisted it slightly, then growled again as he realized it’s difficult to turn a palm upside down when you don’t have palms. “But if I turn a blind eye, I get no credit for doing so, and I risk a reputation for laziness and incompetence. And I refuse to play the fool!”
Ravage considered this, then reached a claw out and, in a few swift strokes, sketched out the outline of a falling star in the hard-packed dirt of the Ponyville streets. He gestured at the mark, then gestured away, yowling with each gesture.
“Send Starscream to do it?” Megatron asked.
Ravage nodded.
“No, I think not,” Megatron said. “Give that idiot half a chance, and he’ll poison this whole town against me if he thinks it will get me out of his way.” Shaking his head somberly, he added, “I’ll say this for him: he could persuade a sharkticon to try vegetarianism. If the sharkticon was in a cage. And if-“
“STAMPEDE!”
Ravage had long known that Megatron’s reaction time put almost all other Decepticons to shame, but he hadn’t expected his master to burst into an instant gallop fast enough to make Ravage work to keep him in sight. The last time this had happened Megatron had been on the opposite side of town and had arrived just in time to see Applejack turn the herd of cows away from town, or so he had said afterwards. This time, apparently, he intended to arrive in time to act.
In moments the two of them were at the bridge- and this time there were no other ponies there before them. And on the other side of the first rise past the bridge Ravage saw a tall cloud of dust rapidly approaching Ponyville.
“Well,” Megatron drawled, a broad smile crossing his face for the first time in days, “I think I’m finally going to get a chance to-“
The source of the dust cloud crested the rise.
Megatron’s smile vanished. “Where are the cattle?” he asked. “What kind of stampede is…” Ravage watched as his master’s jaw dropped in disbelief. His lips moved for a moment before he managed to say, “Are… those… rabbits??”
Ravage growled a short affirmative. Hundreds of rabbits, running for their lives, followed the southeast farm road straight towards the bridge across the river and into town.
“I don’t believe this world,” Megatron whispered in disgust. Raising his volume, he continued, “Stand down, Ravage. We are not to interfere unless asked.”
That Ravage simply couldn’t believe, and he made this clear with his next meow.
“This idiotic book of regulations,” Megatron said, giving said book another shake with his magic, “prohibits the guard from using force in any way against non-speaking animals except, and I quote, ‘when they pose a direct and immediate hazard to pony life.’” For a moment the book darted back over Megatron’s shoulders, as if he were about to hurl it into the river, but with a visible effort the Decepticon-turned-unicorn restrained himself. “It’s too soon to risk our sinecure for personal satisfaction. No matter how… satisfying… it would be.”
Ravage watched the rabbits run across the bridge in a thick stream of fur and fear, parting just wide enough to go past himself and his master before continuing on into the heart of town. He agreed that it would have been very satisfying. His earliest function, back in the days before the great rebellion, had been pest control, before Megatron found better uses for his talents. And here were hundreds of furry organic pests, in the most dire need of extermination…
… but if Ravage was mute, he wasn’t dumb. And millions of years of war had taught him discipline. He sat, perfectly still, and watched as the last bunny ran past…
“Oh! Oh dear! Oh my!”
… followed, at a distance, by a yellow pegasus, wings firmly clutched to her sides, galloping up the road at a speed both frantic and, to Ravage’s eyes, pathetic. If he’d been chasing her, he could have detached a limb and still caught her within a minute.
“Excuse me! Er, Mr. Megatron, sir?”
Megatron’s eyebrows rose. “I don’t believe we’ve met, Miss…”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” the pony said, looking for a moment like she wanted to hide behind that enormous pink mane of hers. “My name’s Fluttershy… I, um, I heard you were the new, um, town sheriff… and, if you wouldn’t mind, I need help gathering up all those poor scared bunnies before they cause trouble…”
A high-pitched shriek erupted from somewhere behind them.
“… oh, dear,” Fluttershy murmured, and now she did indeed hide behind the heavy curl of her mane.
“Well,” Megatron said, drawing out the syllable in a show of consideration. “I suppose this situation does constitute a public crisis…” He frowned a little and looked at the silent, empty streets utterly devoid of chaos or destruction. “… of sorts,” he concluded. “Under the circumstances, it is our duty to be of all the assistance possible.”
Ravage raised his eyebrows silently.
“Yes, I said we,” Megatron told him, dropping the friendly tone. “Help her gather them up and get them out of my town.”
Ravage felt his tail twitch. Slag it, it had a mind of it own. Stupid organic-
“And also,” Megatron added, leaning his head down and dropping his voice to a whisper, “no killing and no injuries. Bring them back alive and unharmed. Understood?”
Nothing less than his most positive roar was acceptable, but Ravage did allow himself a brief sigh of resignation first. Then, without paying any attention to Fluttershy’s faint, “But that’s how this…” before bounding off into town after the wild rabbits.
It didn’t take long to track down a trio of the little vermin decimating a hedge in front of someone’s house. Ravage got their attention with a warning growl, leaping over them to cut off retreat. A little nudge, he thought, and the rabbits would bolt back the way they had come, directly to Megatron and that Fluttershy pony.
Before he’d done more than shift a single paw, the three rabbits bolted in three different directions- none of them towards the bridge.
He chased one, who ran down a path past another bunny. That bunny looked up, saw Ravage coming, and bolted between two houses. Ravage turned to follow, since the new rabbit was closer. Two more rabbits were on the other side of the alley, and again they all took off in different directions. This time Ravage stuck to his pursuit, which ended when the rabbit went under a bush and he leapt over, discovering too late that the bush went on for considerably farther than he’d expected.
Why couldn’t these creatures cooperate? he thought. The pests of deep Cybertron had been predictable, simple creatures limited to a simple algorithm. These rabbits, on the other hand… it… it was worse than herding Autobots!
Ravage pulled himself off the broken branches of the bush, pausing to rub his chest with a forepaw. The scratches irritated him, but the sense of failure sparked a rage deep within. All right! he thought. One at a time, then! Unconscious if necessary, but I will drag them back as Lord Megatron ordered!
This time Ravage took to the rooftops, paws bounding across the thatch. No more chasing; he was an ambush predator, so an ambush it would be. In almost perfect silence he leaped from roof to roof, until, with silence and precision he dropped to the ground and placed one paw firmly on the little cottonpuff tail of an unsuspecting rabbit.
As the rabbit turned its head, dark eyes widening in fear, Ravage brought up the other forepaw. How much force would it take to merely stun his victim? Megatron had said no damage, but a tap to the head-
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?”
Ravage’s head jerked up, looking at the source of the sound. It was the yellow pegasus, but this time she wasn’t hiding behind her hair. He could see both her eyes for the first time, and they were enraged eyes, eyes that grabbed the beholder and hauled them in. He barely noticed Megatron standing behind her before he felt himself pulled through their blue and into the black.
“DOES THAT LOOK LIKE HELPING TO YOU?”
The voice came from everywhere, holding him, forcing his eyes to continue looking into the pony’s. Something deep inside answered with a sensation Ravage almost couldn’t identify at first: total, abject shame.
I disobeyed an order.
I failed Lord Megatron.
I have not fulfilled my core function.
I have done wrong.
From under millions of years of sadism, psychic battle scars, and the horrors of civil wars without end, something young and primitive sang back: I’m good. I want to help. I have a function. I’ll do better…
“ANSWER ME, MISTER!”
Ravage cringed. He’d never done that for anyone except Megatron, and even then only in the rarest of circumstances. He sent up the most pathetic little mewl he could muster, in the hopes that She would be placated.
“That’s right! It’s not!” She said, in a slightly softer tone. “Now let the poor bunny go and apologize!”
Ravage uttered a slightly longer, but still pathetic, yowl, ending on a question note. He felt his ears drooping almost enough to close them.
“That’s better!”
And then the spell was broken, and Ravage’s head swam as ages of concentrated evil dropped back into place in his mind. What… what… what had just happened to him? And why had he…
“And just to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Fluttershy continued, “I think you should come tomorrow and help me take care of the other animals. So you can show them you CAN act properly around them!” A thought struck her suddenly, and then one of those dreadful eyes hid behind the mane again as she turned to face Megatron. “Um, if that’s all right with you, Mr. Megatron?”
“Ah… why, certainly,” Megatron said, flustered for only the briefest of moments. “I do hope you’ll forgive him. He’s not accustomed to… playing nice.”
“Oh, but he’s such an intelligent-looking cat,” Fluttershy said, walking over to Ravage and reaching up a hoof. “I’m sure he’ll pick it up in no time at all.”
Ravage had just a moment for epiphany: this pony was not in the least afraid of him. He was slightly larger than her, with large claws sticking out from each digit on his paws and fangs that stayed visible even with his mouth shut… and this pathetic fleshling creature, unlike practically everything else in town, had no fear.
And then her hoof touched the top of his head…
Ravage enjoyed Megatron’s occasional head-rubs, but Fluttershy actually knew exactly where and how to rub and scratch. The sound of a loud, poorly-tuned engine filled the street, and only when the skritchies ended did Ravage realize it was himself purring.
“I’ll expect him along at nine in the morning, Mr. Megatron,” Fluttershy said. “Ask the postmare for directions if you need them, all right?”
“Certainly,” Megatron said. “I’m sorry we couldn’t be of more help.”
“That’s all right, Mr- oh, stop doing that! No, wait!” Fluttershy trotted off towards a pair of bunnies who had almost totally destroyed the contents of a flower pot. The bunny she’d rescued from Ravage bounced off after her, occasionally glancing over its shoulder at the panther and its unicorn master.
Ravage looked at Megatron, who looked back with undisguised curiosity. “Well,” his master said at length, “I don’t see bloody bits of pony carcass lining the street. And I’m wondering why?”
He could have tried arguing orders, or pretending he wasn’t interested, or any number of things that could possibly be communicated in a yowl and a tilt of the head. But Ravage didn’t see the point. He didn’t know, and he wanted to know, and with a soft grunt and toss of the shoulders he made that clear.
“You don’t know?” Megatron rubbed his chin with a hoof. “That’s… most interesting,” he said at length. “Most interesting indeed…”
Ravage mewled an interrogative.
“Oh, of course you’re going,” Megatron said. “Consider it punishment for your failure. Tomorrow you’ll do whatever that adorable, pathetic, useless little pony asks…” He smiled broadly, that unpleasant smile Ravage had taken great care to never have directed at him. “No matter how humiliating. Understood?”
Ravage nodded glumly, not bothering to meow.
“And while you’re at it,” Megatron added in a near-whisper, “you’ll find out how a defenseless pony can turn one of my most ruthless killers into a puddle of lubricant. If that talent can be directed at others… it would be even more of an asset than that Applejack-“
“I’m sorry? What about Applejack?”
Megatron’s head pivoted, noticing Twilight Sparkle walking over. “Ahhhh…” Ravage watched as the most clever deceiver Cybertron had ever spawned spent but a couple of seconds finding the perfect words to allay suspicion- not the truth, but not a lie either, as it turns out. “As it happens, Miss Sparkle, I was contemplating a most unpleasant duty, regarding your friend.”
Twilight’s ears drooped. “I just bet,” she muttered. “What is it, exactly?”
“Well,” Megatron said, “first there was the incident that hurled the chief weatherpony across town. Then there were all those cases of food poisoning, for which she was ultimately responsible, yes?” Sudden inspiration lit up the unicorn’s face under his helmet. “Oh, and I seem to recall that she was going to assist in a bunny census today? Which, I presume, had something to do-“
“Yes, yes, I get the picture,” Twilight said, slumping. “I’m going to talk to her now. I’ll take care of it.”
“I am duty-bound to see her brought before the town magistrate,” Megatron pointed out. “But it would be… unfortunate… to have the town hero embarrassed-“
“Applejack will go see Mayor Mare and make it right,” Twilight said positively. “I’ll see to it myself.”
“Would you?” Megatron asked. “That would be a load off my CPU- I mean, off my mind.”
“It might be a few days,” Twilight said. “But it’ll get taken care of soon. I promise.”
“Thank you very much,” Megatron said, bowing his head in respect. “Then I’ll be about my rounds.” With one more nod he turned and walked off, Ravage tagging along behind him.
Once the purple unicorn was out of hearing range, Ravage risked a questioning murr.
“I believe we can trust the personal student of the ruler of the nation to keep her word,” Megatron said. “All I have to do is report the conversation to the mayor, say it’s taken care of, and I get the best of both worlds.” He smiled to himself. “A conscientious upholder of the law, but a friendly guardian who uses his better judgment when dealing with minor little affairs. Both the mayor and Twilight Sparkle will see me in a more positive light… leaving them both open to influence.”
Ravage gave a doubtful chuff at this.
“Oh, not all at once, no,” Megatron agreed. “Trust is built a thousand layers up, one layer at a time. This is a fact that fool Starscream could never understand. He would take the first opportunity to betray both of them if it profited him. But I…” His smile grew most grim. “I bide my time. Until the time is right.”
Ravage meowed again.
“Yes, you’re still going,” Megatron answered. “That Fluttershy merits investigation, and you’re the bot to do it.”
Ravage shrugged silently and continued walking beside his master. It was just as well. He wanted to understand what had just happened to him… even more so than Megatron did.
Because until he did, he wouldn’t be his master’s perfect weapon anymore.