A millennium ago...
The Frozen North was an endless expanse of ice and stars. No birds, nor bats; no vegetation. The blue, otherworldly snow sparkled even under weak Moonlight. And yet, from the desolation, a great civilization had risen.
With its magical might and globe spanning sphere of influence, the Crystal Empire was widely regarded as the greatest nation in the world with its many territories and industries. But even empires come afoul of evil, and a single, extremely powerful unicorn, with a black heart to match his appearance, had come to change all that. The ruling family was betrayed and disposed of, and the population of the capital city, subjugated. But as with all violent coups, this change in regime was not without its detractors.
'Hold your position,' the commander signaled with his fabric clad hoof, wisps of snow blowing off it from the wind. Longing to be within the warm, verdant expanses of their home on the other side of the wall, the camouflaged militia dug into the snow at the southeast exit, lying in wait. They had paid a small fortune to a commando to infiltrate the city and disable the perimeter wards, and it seemed to have worked. Unaware of the treacherous act, Sombra was leading his newest group of hypnotized ponies down the Parade road, captured Equestrians by the look of it, right into their hooves. He liked to rain down destruction at night, and with the Moon reduced to a sliver he made sure his mindless assault team was substantial. Upon reaching the gate, he lowered the climate barrier.
For one trooper in particular, this opportunity was a gift from the stars.
The snow covered her on all sides. The soldier’s clammy scarf clung uncomfortably to her face, small chucks of ice spread over it like gravel, slowly accumulating new layers from her heated breath. Her adrenaline-charged heart pumped like piston, as her body coiled like a spring, ready to strike. Cherry Lush gripped her crossbow, eager to unleash her arrows upon the tyrant who had sent her parents to their deaths.
Her grandfather, Blue Star, a powerful mage in his own right, had buried explosives at the exit ready to go off at his whim. Cruel mixtures of metal shards, nails, broken glass and the lethal magical powder were covered over by packed snow. Sombra will learn the hard way that when you take a country by force, there will always be others plotting to take you by force.
Cherry smiled devilishly, as she and her compatriots waited patiently. In just a few seconds he'll be run through by... What is with the Moon? Why is it full!?
"Attention Sombra!" wailed none other than Princess Luna hovering in the sky, her sister Celestia also having teleported at her side. "Your Empire of Evil ends tonight!"
Immediately, Sombra raised a shield around himself, and pointed his hoof at the Royal Sisters. Unable to resist his will, his pilfered troops began attacking the Princesses with spells, spears, and arrows, but the Sisters' horns glowed brilliantly, and prepared a shield of their own.
With the Princesses busy defending themselves from his troops, Sombra lowered his shield and concentrated his power on another spell, his horn awash in green light.
The Commander of the small retaliatory force took stock of all the variables and quickly came to a decision. "Attack!!"
"Buck!" Cherry cried, as the group sprung out of hiding and fox-jumped through the snow toward the enemy, trying to close the distance so they could open fire.
Sombra snarled at the incoming freedom fighters and directed a large portion of his infantry to bombard them. Abruptly, the sky shone as if it was daylight - the Equestrian Princesses were also building a spell and were preparing to fire! Sombra teleported outside the city walls to escape.
With a swing of his foreleg, Blue Star detonated the explosives at the gate, which had the welcome effect of stunning Sombra, and severing his troops from his mental control.
Celestia and Luna struck the black tyrant with the spell they had been preparing, but its range was physically wide and it also hit Cherry Lush and Blue Star!
Sombra doubled over, disoriented as his very being became translucent. He laughed loudly. "You think a shadow spell will stop me? I AM shadow!!" A quick trip to the Crystal Heart will dissipate this kind of spell easily. He teleported behind the Princesses. "Disappear!!!" he bellowed, as he blasted them with a curse.
But the highly trained Princesses teleported out of the way, and his curse hit the Crystal Empire! "No!!" he screamed, but it was too late. The whole city, Crystal Heart and all, vanished without a trace.
With his source of power gone, he fell like a feather, descending slowly to the ground. He lost all control. The howling north wind filled the void that once was a city. His essence was stripped from him like smoke, and very soon he was no more.
Just like the two Crystal soldiers who shared his fate.
Celestia felt relieved. "Thank goodness our citizens had escaped."
Luna was shocked. "Escaped? Thanks to your terrible aim, we hit two civilians!"
"Collateral damage. This is war."
"I KNOW it is war. What about the city!?" Luna had long since tired of her sibling's arrogance.
"We will undo it. That curse was meant for us." Celestia was hardly surprised at Luna's snappy tongue. Steadily over decades, the Princess of the Night had grown increasingly distant, her smiling face a fading memory.
"I am tired of your willful disregard for... Hey! Where are you going?" she screeched, just as her sister teleported away. "Come back here!" Luna went after her sibling with a vengeance.
The freed ponies of Equestria looked this way and that, getting their bearings, trying to make sense of what just happened.
"Um, I guess we're walking home?"
A short time later, Celestia banished her sister to the Moon using the Elements of Harmony.
=^.^=
The townsfolk looked north from Ponyville several times that afternoon, interrupting their routines. This included the Decepticon’s former coworkers who were having a decidedly bad day when their reliable mixer pony didn’t show up for work. The Wonderbolts did some amazing things, but this aerial note was a new one.
Rainbow Dash continued to push clouds into the massive missive, emboldening it. Each letter had a Wonderbolt and an accompanying team of pegasi assigned to it. Buttressed by her long history of leading pegasi to mold cloud formations, she took the responsibility of forming the ‘R’, the pony alphabet equivalent being the largest letter.
The Wonderbolt Captain, Spitfire, was about to call all the flying ponies back to take a break when she noticed a bright object in the sky above them. Looking at it through her spyglass, it shone more and more brightly by the second. Fear came and was suppressed, and she acted quickly. “Take cover!!!”
Her lookouts blew whistles alerting the rest of the pegasi, most of them civilians. The Wonderbolts left last as it was their duty to ensure the safety of the other ponies first. As the aerial team evacuated, a blinding light with the sound of a descending cannon ball sped through the message and crashed onto the surface, ejecting a rocky plume of debris taller than the Canterlot castle tower.
Veteran flyer Soarin was upset that the letter he was working on had been impaled like it was a snow drift, and folded his forelegs. “I take it he got the message.”
Rainbow flew over to the impactor. She had expected a massive explosion from something shot so accurately from an airship so high that nopony could even see it. Yet, only a muffled, boring noise was made. At the center of the small crater was a red hot ball, presumably of metal. The sphere had arrows pointing opposite directions along a pronounced groove along its diameter.
=^.^=
Fluttershy used her best mouth writing for the letter, she had to look sincere. Suspending the delicate paper on her hoof she blew on it as if trying to cool a spoonful of soup. The magic infused paper shined and glowed before disintegrating in a magical puff.
Around her, nature continued on as normal on this beautiful, sunny day. Fluttershy would have normally felt at ease were it not for the Wonderbolts’ strange project a few kilometers north and, most significantly, the near deaths of two Princesses within the last twenty-four hours.
For about a minute, the butter-coated pegasus would look this way and that, sometimes turning on her hooves, sometimes looking at the chicken coop, trying to guess how long it would take to sand down and paint the outer walls. She always did like the red the Apple family used on their b…
A shadow, like a bird of prey flying low, whisked beneath her feet. Yet, there were no birds of prey in the sky, the robins and the jays carrying on as if they hadn’t even seen the shadow. The pegasus’ heart picked up speed as fear crept in, briefly visualizing the chaos her fellow ponies suffered millennia ago.
She shook her head, dispelling the bad thoughts. Discord had accepted the kind mare’s hard won friendship, and had visited her several times for tea since his reformation. He was her friend as much as Applejack or any of the Elements were, and she had to trust him.
The nervous pegasus decided to walk around to the front of her cottage when she noticed something odd. The robins and the jays had stopped chirping, but gazed her way. They were looking at her without so much as ruffling a feather, yet breathed normally. It was like they were judging her. Fluttershy looked away from the staring only to find the bunnies in the grass were doing the same thing. She looked away from the grass to the creek. The otters were staring. She looked to the trees. The squirrels were staring. The mice were staring from the porch. Her heart raced as everywhere she looked she was being stared down, judged harshly, belittled, made worthless…
“DISCORD!!!” she shrieked.
Her eyes were shut tight, tears beginning to pool in the corners, and she shivered, completely trapped with nowhere to go. The creatures were released from their staring fit as brisk winds broke toward the middle of a creaking cluster of trees in front of her. One of the oaks twisted and cracked, the branches of two gnarled limbs extended and flexed like claws. The very knots on the trunk started to move, groaning against the strength of the fiber. A pair turned into hollow eyes, and another gashing open into a mouth. Two more branches lost long ago grew anew to form the familiar horns of the one called Discord.
Creaking like a ship’s hull straining against the gale, his limb-arms crossed.
“I – uh…” Fluttershy didn’t expect this.
The air cracked with magic, and her letter teleported onto a troop of mushrooms near to the pegasus. One particularly lively mushroom walked on its stem to Discord and placed the document into his wooden hand. His hollowed eyes looked at it, one morphing into an expression of suspicion. “You need my help with a - sexy stallion friend,” the thing spoke, but without any mouth movements.
“I,” the pegasus started, feeling as if she made a mistake. “I’m sorry to bother you.”
He swept his wooden hand against the stalwart trunk, as if distressed. “And to think, I was hoping the letter was an invitation to tea.”
Fluttershy lit up. “Oh! Oh yes, I’d love to do that!”
The Discord oak lowered its arms and in a flash of light, his real body materialized in an easy chair, the oak returning to its original state. He wore a Fez on his head and reading glasses, his gangly legs resting on an ottoman. He read Fluttershy’s letter out loud. “Dear Discord – oh that’s so adorable – a new, sexy stallion friend we had met about a week and a half ago is in trouble.” He paused. For anybody close enough, a sizzling sound could be heard. “Due to miscommunication, he found himself embattled with Princess’ Celestia and Cadance.” A rare feeling of trepidation washed over his mismatched limbs. Celestia’s life force had been diminished significantly! “What do you mean embattled? He didn’t actually fight Celestia?”
“She – uh – tried to turn him into stone, as punishment for fighting Cadance.” The mare didn’t realize she’d have to try to defend Ravage! “So they fought.”
“He really fought Cadance?” he replied, hardly believing what was being said. “And what do you mean ‘tried’ to turn him into stone?” he asked in a sinister tone, rubbing his goatee.
“She wasn’t able to do it,” the pegasus responded, trying to interpret Discord’s reaction.
Discord leaned in close to Fluttershy. “Who is this person?” A stallion couldn’t have bested Celestia. Another draconequis, however...
Figuring she’d have to give his name eventually, “R – Ravage.”
“Sounds like a pony from Tartarus,” the Lord of Chaos quipped, “Assuming Cerberus isn’t doing his job.”
“Tartarus? Really?” Fluttershy hadn’t considered this possibility. “Please, we just need to know where he’s from, and he won’t tell us.”
“Tch, I’m not your curator of people, Fluttershy.” He’d normally be interested in knowing more about anybody that could give Celestia a run for her bits, but the fact that Fluttershy didn’t actually want to see him was saddening. Needless to say, a ‘sexy stallion’ could reduce his Flutter-time, and well, that was intolerable.
“Is he from another dimension?” she interjected. “That’s all I need to know.”
Though briefly dejected, Discord was now determined to use his great magical power to search, and closed his eyes. “Mmm, no,” he determined. “And if there was anybody coming from another dimension, I’d know about it.” This was troubling. He knew everybody in the who’s who of the great and powerful. There was no trace of anybody like Ravage until this very day so he must a newcomer, but from where?
Fluttershy was beside herself. Where was Cybertron!? Having sensed disappointment from her friend, “Um, did you still want to come over for tea?” she suggested.
His heart fluttered a bit on that one. In fact, his heart opened a door on his chest and jumped, screaming as it crashed into the dirt.
Discord picked up his suicidal heart, tossed it back into his chest, and closed the door. “Erh-hmm. Pay no attention,” he advised waving a finger in the air, as a school principal might advise a roomful of misbehaved children.
The allayed mare giggled, and started walking toward her cottage. “I’ll brew a pot up.”
=^.^=
The light of the stars kept a constant vigil in the blackness of space, interrupted only by the silhouette of the soaring Decepticon ship, its radiation-absorbing armor making it difficult to detect at the best of times. On the bridge, a pensive figure stared intensely at the main screen.
Hardly noticing that his little ballistic package nearly bludgeoned the ponies, Ravage was worried. The whole purpose of his visit to this little mud ball was to learn how magic worked, then try to yield energon from it. To achieve this, he was meant to spend years in pony form if necessary, and research the discipline of Magic.
Pony social and biological proclivities, many of them disgusting, felt like a gravity well from which there was no escape. In the short period he had spent ‘integrating,’ he managed to catch the attention of some of the planet’s more powerful females. Of those, one even managed to ensnare his attention, however briefly. He shook his head sharply, how could he have allowed that? “I have to get out,” he growled. “But how do I make a clean break?” After just two weeks he was trying to flee. What was he going to tell Megatron?
A humiliating reprimand would be the first thing to happen after reporting in, having lost months of research and preparation. He would be sent back to Soundwave, probably in his old panther body. This would be a blessing at first but unless there was a mission, nothing would happen as he languished immobilized, just machinery inside the Decepticon Communication Officer. Ravage shuddered at this thought. “The boredom...” he rued. At least if he returned successfully, he could parlay for a better position, maybe even infiltrate human factions.
“I have to win!” he declared. He uploaded all his black matter observations and everything he knew about magic onto the Battle Computer, querying for any patterns he might have missed. Its twelve-hundred millisecond result: insufficient data. Non-magical ponies required. It made perfect scientific sense that if you wanted to study a species with an unusual ability, you had to knock out that ability and make comparisons. “Well, there won’t be any of those around,” he chided, as all ponies seemed magic-enabled.
He also just tried to kill their supreme leader. “She’ll be coming at me with the force of – a – megaton…” Ravage smiled evilly. “They will come after me.” This was obvious. “And I’ll have to blast my way out!” he exclaimed, the seeds of a new plan having been sewn. Hostile forces waiting for him at every turn could make integration into pony society impossible. He would just have to let it go.
And leave. Megatron may even be lenient with his failure. Could he also steal all the resources he needed by the time the anomaly’s growth stopped?
With a visit to the planet’s surface looming, the Decepticon spy mentally prepared himself for his cultural troubles to start anew. In particular, the influence of the yellow pony, Fluttershy, will be far greater in her presence, than merely thinking about her. The sensation of her lips on his – that’s not going away for a long time. He still pondered on why the emotional connection was strong to the point of paralysis, though his recent battles helped him to forget these memories.
The access panels to his rear mounted weapon bays opened up. In a whirlwind of unbolting, unlatching, and uninstalling, the spidery arms of the medicroids removed his rocket launchers from their locations in his robot form, and replaced them with his machine gun weapons. He considered what appeared to be an almost impossible construction schedule. The few tons of iron he stole from the bird creatures, though entertaining, was a fraction of the quantity he needed to complete the project and time was ebbing.
=^.^=
In defiance of Twilight’s wishes, Princess Luna kept the stacks of food production and other national status reports constrained to the furthest corner of her desk. With the magically infused Earth being good to the ponies, she didn’t expect anything but walls of textual drudgery.
Also on her desk, received at the same time she was about to begin reading the crop report, was the incident report from last night’s battlement guard. She read that one first, finding out exactly what Ravage did to the castle. The thrashing his warship gave the old building indicated a ruthless, unsympathetic adversary, and illuminated the terrifying power he had at his disposal. Weapons bristling out his ship’s starboard spewed white-hot slugs of metal at over three times the speed of sound, investigators had estimated. Each guard on duty left comments that seemed birthed from a horror novel. ‘It made a deathly howl, like the wingbeats of a thousand changelings,’ read one entry. As awful as the encounter was, it gave Luna the information she needed: his ship’s probable composition and mass.
She emptied every bit of astrophysical talent she could muster in a mathematical tour de force, bolstered by her ever sharpening sense of Ravage’s location. It turned out he was on all sides of the planet in under two hours, with the distance the Minotaur kingdom at his closest.
She calculated his probable velocity, and turned her head away sharply, saddened by the facts. “Ravage, you are a special one,” she concluded. Yet, the Dark Princess still longed for the pony who had unleashed so much havoc that night. A conflict of interest to be sure, but the data suggested that the mysterious stallion acted in self-defense, first from Cadance and then Celestia. ‘You are both going to die,’ was a bit of a downer, but Luna was giving medical attention to the one who attempted to murder him.
Another important development, known only to Luna, was that she had stopped tormenting herself. As punishment for her actions regarding Nightmare Moon she had taken it upon herself to suffer through nightmares whenever she slept, via a sentient magical construct called the Tantabus. Lately though, her adoration for Ravage had completely eclipsed her misguided desire for self-harm. It was so much better being in love that she actually questioned why she ever thought of using such a malicious creature in the first place. It seemed wars long past would be its domain from here on in.
She decided that the magical bond between herself and Ravage, regardless of how little it was understood, must grow to fruition. To accomplish this goal was deceptively simple too.
All she had to do was kiss him.
When they briefly made out during Flitter’s date she felt his heart blossom. She felt his love, and longing. She felt his need to abolish loneliness, to give himself to a mare.
And she, Luna decided, would be that mare.
Upon those fantastic realizations, she departed her office to see Twilight Sparkle. The first step was to prevent a foolish frontal assault that would damn Equestria to creating a powerful new enemy: Cybertron.
=^.^=
His ship used Equestria’s cloud cover to air drop him over Ghastly Gorge. The Decepticon stallion used the gorge to fly in low, tangentially approaching Ponyville. Air dropping out the bottom access hatch, he proceeded at over three-hundred kilometers per hour through the confined gorge, quickly decelerating upon exit. As he landed, he transformed with precision and grace, and started trotting.
The Battle Computer was tasked with finding the highest concentration of guards and military ponies. All available assets were superimposed on his vision and he decided to veer toward the group at the crater.
In the field of the black matter detector, a particularly strong stream was noticed as the spy trotted by. He’d seen these before; they travelled an east-westerly direction, and were roughly a hundred times more luminous as the next most luminous streams. They were rare, but not that rare. He created the term ‘superstreams,’ as these phenomena necessarily required further study.
The Wonderbolts, unaware of the approaching Decepticon stallion, worked diligently. Groaning, squealing metal resisted the ponies as they tried to open up the sphere. Having borrowed tools from their attacker’s former construction site, the heavy little ball was screwed apart. Millimeters at first, then centimeters, as a third pair of Wonderbolts screwed it open. Air from inside the ball mixed with atmospheric air in a hiss, and the two halves came apart. Captain Spitfire hefted the top half off with a crowbar, revealing a silvery wrapped item. A tag attached to the top read “Elements only.”
“Ha!” Rainbow Dash blurted out. “Guess I’m the only Element here, so I’ll just take a look-see.” The other Wonderbolts gave her space as she approached the package. She retracted her hoof quickly upon first touch. “Whoah! Heh, it’s a little warm.”
With a few quick movements using the hardened parts of her hooves, she jostled the package from outside the ball. The shiny, blanket-thick packaging cooled quickly and she was able to unwrap it in about a minute. Revealed was a simple headset, with a red light glowing on the piece that attached the microphone to the base.
Ponyville was abuzz with more activity than usual, as more than a few ponies were interested in what just nearly hit them. In particular, three children on a scooter and trailer zigzagged through the crowds and their wares.
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were grimacing nearly the whole time on their hell-bent-for-leather journey to the impact site, weathering wild g-forces and harrowing near misses as they held onto the cart rails for dear life.
The driver, using her rapidly beating wings for propulsion, deftly maneuvered the obstacle course that was the town site, using ditches, dislodged cobble stones, roots and whatever she could to get airborne, even if only temporarily.
Ravage entered Ponyville proper, and the black matter data was broadcast to the satellite network, and the Battle Computer. Fortunately, his former construction site was on a side of town he wasn’t passing through. The observations weren’t any different than the last time he walked on this soil. Against the laser-straight streams of black matter, the ponies themselves shined brightly, and Ravage found himself once again pondering this mystery.
The association that the greater the absorption of black matter that flowed into the ponies, the more powerful they were, was an easy one to make, but where did all the extra mass go? The fact that the ponies never got heavier was a mathematical thorn in his side ever since he’d turned on the detector.
There were definitely patterns to observe, like how large quantities of black matter entered the body through the hooves of pegasi, and the brains of unicorns. Could cutting off the wings and horn affect black matter entry?
The orange-coated mare he purchased carrots from days ago waved a hoof at him, smiling. He nodded back with a brief smile – that was good casserole – observing that earth ponies didn’t have focal points like pegasi and unicorns.
“It just doesn’t make sense unless,” the stallion bot slowed his pace, eyes opening wide in the heat of an epiphany. “No,” he shook his head, not believing his own discovery. “It can’t be!” He didn’t care about the two elderly stallions looking at him like he had a mental illness, and superimposed videos of Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, split-screen, and in different situations. Unknown to most of Equestria, they were two of the most powerful ponies. Rainbow Dash was a special case, not being an alicorn, but the energy she could project was no less immense.
“Dark energy?” he suspected with a scowl.
Could ponies and the other magical creatures of Celestia-1 be perfect little batteries for dark energy? The very phenomenon that influences space-time to drive galaxies apart and causes the universe to expand was allowing Flitter and Cloudchaser to fly over at that very moment, leering at him again? Has Twilight Sparkle been harnessing this energy to practically bend reality? Somehow, Equestrian creatures and their ilk must have developed an association with black matter and dark energy, and were using such energy to empower their magic. Perhaps there were different kinds of dark energy utilized, depending on the creature, or individual. He continued trotting toward the impact site, transfixed as a torrent of ideas hit him.
Levitation, presumably at work in pegasus flight as well as the standard unicorn fare, could be magically controlled dark energy interacting with matter to cause motion. In fact, “It gives earth ponies their great strength,” he deduced, acting as a complimentary power source to work in unison with muscle, just like his hydraulics. In this manner, a determined little pony, like Pinkie Pie, may overcome physically larger ponies like Big Macintosh as long as they had access to a significantly larger dark energy pool. Perhaps this is why the females ruled. The strongest magic users were most often mares, the best known example being the all-mare Elements of Harmony.
Magic shields could be explained along the same principles, commanding the very air to stand fast against an incoming force.
While trying to deduce how electromagnetic manipulation by magic worked, Ravage had an eerie feeling that dark energy could be made to operate at the quantum level. He recalled clearly from Twilight’s lessons that one of the basic tenets of implementing magic was which thaumic field was applied to the defined space where it would operate. Were ponies able to slow down molecular motion resulting in refrigeration? Could they alter the quantum foam of the universe to allow teleportation?
The Decepticons’ most mysterious technologies seemed to partner with dark energy. The elite Decepticon fighter, Skywarp, had a power chip rectifier that was able to harness it for teleportation; strangely, the technology was never able to be reproduced. The space bridge didn’t use dark energy directly, but invoked it with its particle focusing array.
Back at the crater, Dash was done examining the headset, and put it on her head. The red light at the microphone swivel turned green making an audible noise that sounded like and electronic water droplet, startling her. “Huh?”
Ravage had been trotting, and neared the northern edge of town. “I see you got the package,” he responded silently, choosing to broadcast his thoughts instead of speaking out loud.
“Ravage, is that you?” Dash queried.
“Indeed.”
She was surprised at the evident capabilities of the headset. “Say, what’s the big idea attacking our Princesses?” Her fellow Wonderbolts nodded, a couple stomping indignantly.
Selecting an alternate, but slower route, he quickly got away from the crowds of ponies. “Cadance tried to rend my heart, Celestia tried to immolate my body, and I can assure you that I will kill them on sight.”
Dash was struck. Just as soon as an understanding had come about from last night’s violent events, Ravage’s perspective messed it up again. She relayed the information, stunning her comrades.
Spitfire approached her disquieted recruit. “Dash, we would like our Princesses to be able to go outside again.”
She nodded to her Captain. “Okay, they tried to kill you; you tried to kill them back. You had a scrap. I just wanna keep our Princesses alive, know what I’m sayin’?”
“Assign new Princesses.”
“Uh, about that. Twilight’s callin’ the shots now.”
Ravage couldn’t believe what was just said. In fact, he cracked a smile. “Twilight now commands Equestria?” He almost lost his balance as a trio of young fillies sped past him on a scooter and cart, heading in the same direction. The pegasus at the front was using her wings for ground propulsion, a transportation mode with no previous data on record.
Rainbow Dash was really enjoying the progress made in just a few words. “Uh yeah!” she uttered in an all-knowing tone. “Doesn’t matter. What I really want is to keep our Princesses safe.”
“Keep them out of my sight.”
“I want you to stop going after them, Ravage.” She waited a few seconds, but no response came forth. “Look, it was a big misunderstanding. Celestia thought that you were dangerous and tried to get you away from Twilight,” and it looked like she was right, Dash figured, especially from the sour looks her squad mates were giving her. “And oh! Did you know that there’s some mystical bond between you and Luna?”
“Celestia is no less dangerous than I am,” the Decepticon rebutted. “And Luna had already mentioned this ‘bond’ of which you speak.”
“Yeah, well Cadance tried to break it.” She covered the mic with a hoof and updated her friends.
Ravage laughed. “Murdering me is a very good way to break the bond. I applaud her straight-forward thinking.”
“What!?” Rainbow was disbelieving, not understanding the candor that came with his statement. “Look she wouldn’t kill you.” The flustered Wonderbolt couldn’t believe what she was saying, and looking at her teammates’ appalled faces, neither could they. “She was trying to break the bond, uh, the Cadance way!” Luna established that the misguided Princess continued her attempt to break the bond despite Ravage’s obvious pain. That was not cool! The diplomatically cornered pegasus sat her on her haunches, and pondered.
“So,” Ravage began, feeling victorious, “Bond-breaking or not, Cadance tried to kill me, so why would it surprise you that I tried to kill her in self-defense?”
“It doesn’t,” Dash capitulated, trying madly to think of way to convince Ravage that Cadance was not trying to murder him. “Look Ravage, what is it you want? Why are you even here!?” No quick response came. “Things were cool between us until Cadance bucked up! I just, I dunno, want things to go back to the way they were.” Dash smiled hopefully. “Eating good food, having parties, Twilight teaching you magic. Don’t you want those days back?”
Ravage’s smile straightened. “Those were simpler days,” he responded in suppressed timbre. He felt pangs in his heart, a very uncomfortable sensation. Stupid body-induced emotions, the pangs stepped up when he thought of cooking with Fluttershy.
“So whaddya want?” Rainbow Dash asked again.
He didn’t want to talk to this pegasus anymore. She’d struck him as if his very laser core had been showing power fluctuations. He was only too glad she couldn’t see him. Nevertheless, the reason he initiated a dialog needed to be addressed. “I need materials.”
Dash was disbelieving. “Materials?” verifying that’s what she heard. “You want stuff?”
Spitfire rolled her eyes; she knew where this was going.
“Iron, aluminum, copper; there are other things. Can you provide?” He could actually see the backs of Rainbow Dash and the other Wonderbolts in the distance.
Dash relayed the information, completely bamboozling her teammates. “Uh yeah, I think we can get you – some of that stuff.”
“I need all of it.”
“And why do you need it?”
“I need it so that I may better defend myself.”
“Self-defense, huh?” Rainbow’s horseapples detector was going off like a klaxon.
“That is correct. If you can provide me with the materials I need, I will not destroy Celestia and Cadance.”
Dash’s eyes opened wide, sensing opportunity. She covered up the mic and relayed the message to the other Wonderbolts. “I need to talk to Twilight.”
Spitfire quickly nodded, turning to the crew. “Pack it in ponies, we’re going to Canterlot!”
Ravage was practically at the crater when they took off, and was wondering if he should have galloped. A fight would have broken out, he was certain. As a result, he would have to steal everything he needed, as well as build and refine the device in just a few days. A full-on campaign of terror looting town after town to get the raw materials was business as usual for a Decepticon. There was just one problem.
He had no inventory. If this was Earth, he would know where the steel, and military tech, and energy was. Here, there could be a rich vein of ruby crystals hiding just centimeters under his hooves and he would have no idea.
Again he passed through a superstream, moving easterly, but not quite parallel to the other he encountered earlier. It was a good bet that if he took the trail into the Everfree toward his old base, he may run into another like that one. The Battle Computer analysed the data on the two streams he’d run into and determined that they converged six kilometers south and east, in the Everfree forest. He definitely intended to explore that area after he’d visited his old base.
The Decepticon spy peered over the hill south of the crater to see three fillies standing around the opened up message ball he’d sent earlier. He recognized Sweetie Belle, Rarity’s sister.
And she recognized him. “Hi Ravage!!” she greeted, both forelegs reciprocally waving in the air.
He started making his way toward the trio. “What’s that?” he asked, looking at the emptied ball.
“Looks like a cannon ball,” Applebloom responded.
Scootaloo trotted up to him. “Ravage, you just missed the Wonderbolts. They wanted to talk to you! Any idea why the message is backwards?”
Ah, so they don’t know about his fight with the Princesses. “They must have mistaken information,” he lied. Suddenly, the Battle Computer sounded off.
Anomaly located: unknown designation.
The Battle Computer didn’t bother superimposing her picture, since she was right in front of him. Her black matter pattern was way off. She retained more than other filly pegasi, yet barely any flowed into her hooves.
“You have me at a loss. You know my name, but I don’t know yours,” he replied gently, still surprised at this little pony actually exists.
The little pegasus was disappointed. “Scootaloo! We were all at the picnic, remember?”
“Yeah, until the barn blew up,” Applebloom interjected. “Poor Cadance. Hey, did you make it out the north door before it came down? We couldn’t find ya in the wreckage.”
Not interested how Ravage made it out of the barn, obviously looking no worse for wear, Sweetie Belle interrupted. “What were you doing with Fluttershy in the club house, hmm?” she asked sweetly.
“Yes, I managed to get out the north door and get away,” only answering Applebloom’s question.
“We figured, but,” the orange filly started, a sly look developing, “Applebloom said Fluttershy was blushing.” Batting eyelashes completed the insinuation.
“It was adult talk, pay no mind,” replied the stallion bot, trying to divert to a new topic.
“I knew it!” Sweetie concluded, bounding into the air excitedly. “You love Fluttershy.”
“What!?” Why were they jumping to conclusions so recklessly? “We were having a private conversation!” he bellowed. The kids weren’t frightened in the least.
“Oh we understand,” Applebloom added, now wearing the half-lidded expression of abject evil. “Fluttershy couldn’t wait for you to get down from the clubhouse, we get it. Your adult ‘talk’,” the little farmer pantomimed with her hooves, “Knocked a bunch of our stuff over. That’s quite the talk.”
How can they know so much without seeing? Ravage grimaced, as the three fillies now bounded around him in a circle, chirping ‘Ravage loves Fluttershy’ repeatedly. Children are so annoying! “No, I don’t!” This stopped the fillies in their tracks, surprise on their faces.
“What?”
“Are ya sure?”
Sweetie Belle was particularly disappointed. “You’d better tell Fluttershy,” she said quietly.
“I have already done so.”
With their main source of fun torpedoed the Crusaders shrugged, and started to board their scooter and wagon vehicle.
“Wait, Scootaloo,” Ravage intervened, “Why aren’t you flying?”
She gave him a dirty look, but then calmed down. “Oh yeah, you’re new here.”
“You’d be more efficient. Flying would allow you to completely avoid obstacles on the ground.”
“Yeah well,” the orange filly began, putting her helmet back on, “I can’t fly.”
Ravage could believe his luck – or lack, thereof, as they were starting to drive away. “Wait!” Courteously, they braked. “Tell me why.”
Scootaloo sighed heavily, “I don’t know, not that it’s any of your business.”
“Your gait,” he pointed to her hooves, “It seems off,” he lied. “Did you injure your hooves?” This was a shot in the dark, but she was the only known pegasus to not have a significant amount of black matter flow into her hooves.
Applebloom gave him a weathering look. “We don’t talk to losers.”
Sweetie Belle simply stuck her tongue out at him.
Scootaloo was frozen, processing, trying to think about how to respond.
“Onward, Scootaloo,” Sweetie bossed, her foreleg off making forward movements.
But Scootaloo didn’t move. “Well-,” she began, much to the surprise of her friends, “I did nearly burn them off once.”
“WHAT!?” her two friends said in unison.
“This is second hoof information from them, but – my mom and dad are adventurers. They thought they could take me along one of their trips, which were pretty dangerous.” Scootaloo paused, and looked up as she organized her recall of the details. “Apparently, I was allowed to stray onto some cooled lava, only,” she chuckled nervously, “It wasn’t very cool.”
Her friends were absolutely gob smacked.
“It’s why I live with my aunties.” She threw out her right front hoof toward the stallion spy. “And as you can see, the surgeons fixed me up good as new,” she proclaimed angrily. “Come on girls.”
Ravage nodded his head slowly in understanding as the trio sped away. Scootaloo may not have been able to fly, but she was still an impressive pegasus, converting her disability into a new propulsion mode. Though, the reasons for her doing so didn’t surprise the veteran soldier. “Incompetent creators, I might have known.”
Scootaloo could definitely help develop the understanding between black matter and dark energy. The idea that he could scoop her up and fly into his ship, and perform experiments on her came to mind. No good, it could interfere with his materials acquisition; Twilight could just tell him ‘no’, do your worst, and a new war would be torched off. There was a more important reason though. Since Megatron and the other Decepticons weren’t around, he could indulge in a personal attribute normally kept under the surface. Scootaloo, by virtue of facing down a life-altering condition and turning it into a strength, earned his respect.
“Updating profile on Scootaloo,” he soundlessly informed the network. “Implement level ten protection.” With the force of the Decepticon military apparatus providing security, no harm shall come to Scootaloo, not while Ravage was around.
=^.^=
Celestia examined one of the metal slugs that had perforated her chambers, completely befuddled as to what could possibly will small hunks of metal through four-foot-thick stone. Her lacerations, thanks to powerful medical magic, had nearly healed. Her broken bones were knitting at an accelerated pace. Her hair and body had been cleaned thoroughly. Her right eye, gone, was now replaced with a gold leaf eye-patch embossed with the sun, like her cutie mark.
Cadance’s wing bones were also on track to a fast recovery. She was hungrily eating a meal, and had just finished the buttermilk biscuits.
Twilight paced back and forth, but brightened up as soon as she saw Luna walk into the room.
“Still wearing ditches in the floor, I see,” the Dark Princess chided.
“Luna, please tell me you have something,” pleaded Twilight.
“I do.” Her Reagent’s mood instantly perked up. “But I require that all parties involved in data gathering be present.”
And the Reagent’s mood soured, “What do you mean?”
Just then, Pinkie Pie bounced into the room, her usual cheery self.
Twilight perked up again. “Pinkie Pie!” she gushed, as if she hadn’t seen her in ten years. “What did you find out?”
“Absolutely nothing!” she replied, smiling the whole time.
Rarity and Applejack entered the bunker, and Twilight cast a hopeful glance.
“I’m sorry, Twilight, but we’ve had no luck finding anything about Cybertron,” Rarity offered. Her frazzled alicorn friend immediately shifted from hope to dejection.
“And we’ve been to over half the libraries in Canterlot,” Applejack added.
Twilight was about to face-hoof when Rainbow Dash entered with the Wonderbolts, as well as a significant ground force led by Shining Armor.
Luna winced. “That looks suspiciously like an expeditionary force.”
“Advisors, to be precise,” Shining countered.
Luna was swiftly moving toward the Crystal Prince when Captain Spitfire flew between the two of them. “Ravage wants to bargain with Celestia and Cadance’s well-being for a list of things he supposedly needs,” the Wonderbolt leader barked.
Behind her, Fluttershy landed, apparently awash in deep thought.
Twilight, though keenly interested in Ravage’s terms, calmly trotted over to her demure friend, who only crookedly smiled behind her mane. “No wait, let me say it. Ravage is not from another dimension. Am I right?” Fluttershy nodded quickly.
“What!?” Luna gawked. She had an explanation of Ravage’s unusual flight pattern, his ship’s capabilities, everything; but it all depended on him being from another dimension. Now, there could only be one explanation, no matter how unlikely, or scary, judging by her increased heartbeat. She walked off to the side where she could get her thoughts in order. This was going to be, as Pinkie Pie liked to say, a ‘doozy’.
Twilight really wanted to follow up on the list the Wonderbolts brought. “Okay, Spitfire. What does Ravage want?”
“Various metals, but maybe you can ask him yourself.”
Rainbow flew up to Twilight and presented the headset. She looked at it curiously, wondering how such a mundane thing with limited range could be useful. It looked so plain. She floated it onto her head. “Ravage?” she queried. “Ravage, are you there?”
The Decepticon stallion, hidden away in the foliage of the Everfree Forest, was examining local rocks as well as insets containing the space bridge designs, and a digitally zoomed in image of Scootaloo’s hoof. “I hear you’ve climbed the rungs of power with great expediency.” He had also established that the main door of his previous forward operating base was still closed, and not yet covered in nosy ponies. Not only that, but a third superstream was encountered while walking the forest trail, and petering out just as he was studying it.
Twilight was flustered, but didn’t want him sensing it. “Ravage, where are you?”
“It was my understanding that you want Cadance and Celestia to live.”
“Where- yes!”
“Then you will provide thirty-five tons of iron, six tons of aluminum, two tons of copper, forty pounds of manganese...” Ravage hoped he was aligning the names to the correct proton count. Decepticons usually referred to elements by number, at least until shortly after they awakened on Earth.
The Reagent hastily scrawled the list with a quill and parchment she always had nearby. “And what about my demands?”
“Your bargaining posture is highly dubious. From my position, you simply have no alternative.”
Luna was standing close to Twilight and could hear Ravage with clarity. She also knew he was close by Ponyville in the Everfree, but refrained from interrupting. Bargaining under duress was something Twilight should have had experience in already. The strain of recent events was definitely getting to her.
“No! I want things too! This will not be one-sided,” the Friendship Princess demanded.
“Then gaze upon the face of Celestia.”
At merely Ravage’s suggestion, Twilight did, full of respect and admiration for the Equestrian leader. Her former teacher smiled back, proud of how far her student had come.
The Decepticon warrior continued, “Her face, strong and proud, beautiful yet yielding, like the pale petals of a daisy,” he said, pausing.
The young alicorn felt her heart strings tug a little. She had written poetry about the mighty Sun leader, but never showed anypony. She had even desired her, but never told anypony.
“...Will sag and then shrink as it dries and tightens around the skull of her corpse!”
“Noooo!!”
“This I promise by the end of the week!”
“Ravage, we’re sorry! Don’t throw our friendships away like this!” Starting to tear up, she noticed Fluttershy had come to her aid.
“You should have thought of that before your slag-beast started BURNING me! You have twenty-four -”
“Ravage,” came a soft voice into his sound port.
He scowled. The yellow one had come. “Yes, Fluttershy.”
“We will get you all the metal you requested, we promise. I,” she paused, “Ravage, are you okay - I mean - okay now?”
The Decepticon soldier didn’t expect this. “Yeah.” It was something in her voice. She was so disarming.
The soft-spoken pony smiled. “That’s good, but things have changed, Ravage.”
“He needs an escort,” Twilight whispered in her ear, pleased with her normally timid friend’s negotiating skills.
Fluttershy nodded. “You will need to be escorted. That’s okay, isn’t it?”
Ravage didn’t like the idea having a pony watching his every move, but time was of the essence. After everything gets built he could eliminate him. “That depends. Will my metals be ready tomorrow morning?”
Fluttershy covered the microphone, and relayed the message.
He thought about the trajectory of these conversations, and it was pretty clear that an exchange of requirements and materials was to occur as if he were bartering on the streets. If they failed to bring his metals as requested, what would be the punishment? What else did he need? That little orange filly would be good to have on hand.
“Ravage?” she radioed back. “Just one more thing. Your warship needs to be in sight as much as possible. Could you dock it at Canterlot?”
He stifled a snicker. She thinks that puny thing he came in on is a warship? “No, but I can land it near Ponyville.”
His cover was virtually blown. The stallion spy could keep hiding, continuing his hard target search for the materials he needed, and nuke Canterlot from orbit as he departed into what he hoped was a way home. In all likelihood, this opportunity would have long passed by the time he actually found all the metal, tritium, and helium-3. Needless to say, staying meant females trying to affix themselves to his body and his life. Going by Fluttershy’s exceedingly efficient ability to not just negotiate, but to wrap it up quickly was the best indicator that he had no idea how to handle these females. There could be years of this if he didn’t get those metals quickly.
“They’re talking about it,” the yellow mare chimed in.
“Just one more thing, since we seem to be making lists.” Ravage was wondering how to work this angle in, and now was his chance. “Scootaloo is to be an impartial advisor whom I may call upon in a moment’s notice.”
There was a moment of silence, and then “She - she’s just a child.”
“And one with better problem solving skills than what I’ve seen in the bulk of Ponyville’s adults. Clearly, you have underestimated that one.”
Back in the bunker, “He wants Scootaloo to get involved in this?” Rainbow Dash questioned. The Wonderbolt star had taken the pegasus filly under her wing, and treated her like a sister, and sometimes even mentored her while her wayward parents lost themselves in another part of the globe. And now Ravage wanted her advice? She shrugged, since the ponies with the most advice to offer outright attacked him. Maybe he sought young fillies because they hadn’t developed their social filter yet, and tended to speak in unobstructed truth.
Luna sensed the time was approaching to tell her people what Ravage really is, but doing so in the middle of negotiation would likely reverse any progress toward healing. “Ravage is right about Scootaloo being a good troubleshooter,” she contributed. Though what she was actually pondering on was the stallion’s peculiar requests, though the Dark Princess’ statement helped to convince most of the other ponies. He didn’t have to land in Ponyville, he could land anywhere away from Canterlot. It could be because his previous dwelling was close to Ponyville.
Twilight needed to verify. “You all understand that by doing this, we are mandating that Scootaloo becomes a deputy of the Crown?” Most of them nodded in the affirmative. “Okay, but she is not to skip school, chores, hygiene, or any other obligations. This work will be added on top of everything else she does. Are we clear?”
“Ah’ think I’m clear, it’s just, Ravage is the calculatin’ type,” Applejack offered. “He and a few good stallions could fight a whole army ‘o changelings, and win.”
Twilight’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“He’s after the child,” she emphasized with her forelegs, as if holding a bale of hay. The crowd looked more confused than convinced. “Her name is Scootaloo, ya might know her.”
“You think Scootaloo could be in danger?”
Applejack pondered on her hoof for a bit, and shook her head. “Ah’ don’t rightly know.”
“Hmmm. Okay, hooves up. Are we using Scootaloo?” The overwhelming majority of hooves went up, including Princess Celestia. “And against?” Applejack, the Princess of Friendship already knew about. Pinkie Pie had her hoof up, as did Shining Armor. She looked toward Shining first.
“This is horseapples, Twilight. We’re being played!” What he thought of a situation didn’t matter to his sister unless he had something to back it up. “Are Applejack and Pinkie Pie the only other unconvinced ponies here?”
The Princess looked toward Pinkie for her council.
Pinkie was unusually calm. “Ravage hangs out with other ponies, but I don’t really think he wants to. I mean, who hides a warship in the Everfree forest?” Strong agreement from Shining Armor and Applejack on that one; a lot of other ponies started to think twice. “I don’t think he’d hurt Scootaloo, but he’s definitely not her friend.”
Twilight got half of what she wanted; the other half she would solve later. “Okay, we’ll deputize Scootaloo,” she declared, inciting a cacophony of uncertainty among her ponies. “Princess Luna, can I count on you to watch over Scootaloo day and night?”
“Of course, Twilight,” Luna agreed with a slight bow. She flashed a piece of parchment and quill in front of her and wrote out a message for Aster, who was probably still sleeping.
The Reagent nodded over to Fluttershy, who had been covering up the microphone before relaying the affirmative message. It was curious that she didn’t seem to react either way to young Scootaloo being used to grease the wheels of negotiation. The demure pegasus definitely liked Ravage, and knew him better than anypony. Was she confident the terms would be met without hassle, or would she just do anything for the dangerous stallion?
Fluttershy took the head phones off, grinning. “He agrees. And is also - out?”
Shining Armor came and telekinetically lifted up the headphones, placing them into an ethereal box he had conjured, and closed the lid. “It means the conversation is over.” He pointed to the transparent, floating box. “Soundproof.”
“Princess Luna,” Twilight addressed. “You said that you know where Ravage is from?”
Like iron filings toward a magnet, every pony turned toward Luna, varying degrees of uncertainty written in their expressions. Applejack gave one hundred percent of her attention, having managed to wrangle the name of his home, though not the location.
“This will be difficult for you to accept,” Luna spoke to everypony, “So I will start with the facts. The reason why nopony can see his warship, and believe me, we have the best spotters, isn’t just because it’s so high it disappears like a bird in the mists.” She looked at the crowd, everypony was listening. “It is because his warship is orbiting our world.”
No response was forthcoming, just ponies staring with astonishment and disbelief.
Twilight adjusted her stance. She didn’t want to fall down while trying to process this. “In space?” Luna nodded once. “Where there is no air?” She nodded a second time. The little Princess paused, not wanting to believe. “My mind is blown and you haven’t even told us where he’s from yet.”
Lots of ponies wanted to speak up, but held their tongues, bracing themselves for bad news.
Luna continued. “He is a magical void.” Her stressed subjects and the other Princesses burst forward, denouncing the Dark Princess’ words.
“That’s impossible!”, “Pound sand!”, “Did you fail at Magical Kindergarten?” were some of the tamer responses.
“Sister, all living things have a connection to magic, even bacteria,” the bed-ridden Celestia implored. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were busy shushing the other ponies.
“Princess Luna, what is your evidence?” Twilight requested, confident that one of the fundamental laws of nature probably won’t be overturned within the span of a conversation.
“I tested his magical resonance, and discovered that he had none.”
“Extremely low magical resonance can be undetectable,” Twilight countered.
“At first, that is what I believed as well, but look at the facts.” The Princess of the Night did a quick mental inventory. “My sister’s stoning spell did not work, in fact it misfired. That is most unexpected from an alicorn with millennia of experience; however, that is what happens with strong spells when not taking magical voids into account.” Skepticism from ponies all around her was the harsh, albeit, predictable response. “Look at his weapons! They ran through Celestia’s barriers like soap bubbles.”
Twilight was still skeptical. Celestia was about to say something, but held back, holding her hoof to her chin.
Luna continued, unabated. “I want to bring to light all of his odd behaviours as well. My sister has already shared some experiences. She held out her hoof to Ravage, a pony she was about to interact with, but had never met. A male pony. He proceeded to hoof bump it.” Some chuckles were heard, and everypony was more relaxed. “Any other untoward behaviours to share?” she asked of the crowd.
“He didn’t know how to dance,” Pinkie Pie leaped in. “Even my sister, Limestone, knows how to dance!”
“Why does he insist on living in the Everfree forest?” Rainbow Dash added.
“He lied about being from a lumber town,” Applejack said as she shook her head.
“He also lied about not evading Princess Luna’s night guard,” Rarity spoke out, disappointed. An omission would be a better way to describe it, but it was unbelievable how much confidence and calm he exuded. He was also very helpful to Sweetie Belle, who had since taken a liking to him. Indeed, most unfortunate.
“Well, he’s smart,” Twilight came in. “He absorbed information on Magic theory like a sponge, and he was completely relaxed about it; which is weird, because I don’t know of any pony who learned that quickly without studying and practicing their tails off. And that’s not all.” Twilight sorted her thoughts, her people looking on with baited breath. “He, a Decepticon earth pony, managed to apply his Magic knowledge within a week of learning it! Not directly, but the more I think about it, the more I think he made a fantastic suggestion. He thinks that Earth ponies and pegasi should also learn Magic theory, not just unicorns.” As with Luna before her, her fellow ponies reacted badly to his suggestion.
“SILENCE,” Luna demanded in her Royal Canterlot Voice. It worked immediately.
The Reagent was thankful for Luna’s stern handling. “The end game is the development of novel spells, which take a long time to perfect. That’s what magically-learned pegasi and earth ponies could spend their careers doing. They don’t have to use them, just write them. And last I looked, we have a huge deficit in unicorns creating new spells. This has been a problem throughout the whole Celestial era!”
“And even before,” Luna reminded. When she looked around the unexpectedly silent space, she was gifted the delightful sight of her little ponies giving consideration to Twilight’s words, or rather, Ravage’s words.
Celestia still thought it one of the ugliest ideas in recent memory, and she was far from alone.
“Applebloom could go ta’ Magic school?” Applejack ventured, still pondering the ramifications of such a big change.
“Magic discipline would likely be added to the public school curriculum,” Luna corrected. “The School for Gifted Unicorns would still be a school for gifted unicorns.”
“Anything else? Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, looking to her friend.
“Well,” she responded shyly, “He turns into a bipedal black metal panther.”
That rustled the crowd. Yup, Ravage was weird.
Luna took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. It was time. She walked to the Friendship Princess and bowed. “I hereby renounce my backing on the Ubiquitous Magic Theory.” Stunned, the little Princess had nothing to say. “Your thoughts on this were in the right direction, Twilight,” she said, recalling the little scientist’s battery experiment in her carriage the previous week. “I’ve come to believe that magic, as we know it, is most likely constrained to our little piece of the galaxy.”
“But - what is your evidence?” The Reagent asked weakly.
“Ravage is the evidence you were looking for. I’ve also began to give in to my suspicions that the Decepticon warship, like Ravage, is also not magical. It is, therefore, technological.” Another chorus of disbelief burst forth from the gathered ponies. This was hardly surprising, and Luna let it spew forth.
Twilight frowned. “That would mean the warship was built by, and operates using only the natural laws.” She was shaking her head, not wanting to accept this.
“Non-magical means?” asked Rainbow Dash, looking for clarification.
Twilight perked up, and smiled at her lover. “Luna believes Ravage’s people use only applied physics, engineering, and chemistry, and no magic.” Now Twilight thought of last week’s battery demonstration. Compared to Ravage’s equipment, which purportedly flew rings around the world, Equestria’s great journey into understanding the natural laws suddenly felt very small.
Applejack’s eyes glazed over with worry. “Ah’ remember him sayin’ that Cybertron has a people o’ great technical sophistication.”
Luna continued. “He and his Decepticon comrades built the warship that trounced Celestia, afterward proceeding to orbit our planet, idly passing the time as if moored at a dock.” Twilight said nothing, and the other ponies had quieted down. “The kind of society that can perform these feats could not possibly go unnoticed by us, or any other race, even if they were from Tartarus.” She strolled up to Fluttershy. “That is, unless they were from another dimension. And what did Discord say regarding Ravage possibly being from another dimension?”
Fluttershy gulped, but pushed on. “He said that nopony had come from another dimension. When - when I asked him. This morning.” A surge of hushed talk and whispering came from the mostly confused ponies.
Luna continued a slow plod, placing one hoof before the other. “My fellow ponies, when all possibilities are eliminated save one, then that last possibility, no matter how unlikely, must be the truth.” A gasp was heard; her sister’s face was wracked with horror, figuring out the truth of where Ravage really comes from, and therein, the size of the mistake she made in the Everfree forest. Another gasp, this time from Shining Armor. If he was turning pale, he could be as white as his coat. Flapping her wings, Luna took to a high hover. All eyes were on her.
“Ravage is not of this world.”
=^.^=
Few tourist destinations projected the allure of nature like Neighagra Falls. Towering trees and wild rivers dominated the rocky, hilly landscape. Cool, crisp air could be enjoyed even in high summer. Of course, the main attraction was the falls themselves, dropping as several cascades. Infringement by the ponies upon the magnificent natural feature was a little more than minimal, with an entire town growing out of it like a tumor. Posh hotels stood shoulder to shoulder with street markets, play grounds, and parking lots for hay ride cabs.
Another train in a long line of trains squealed to a stop, disgorging a seething mass of tourists. Among them, but completely concealed from them, a shadow moved of its own volition, whisking itself into the other larger shadows unseen. Moving at the speed of a pony, it made its way to the Shady Falls trail head. At a discreet point on the trail, the sound of hoofsteps, born of silence and increasing in volume, accompanied the body of Cherry Lush materializing from nothing. Only the shadow remained unchanged.
The forest stopped abruptly, giving way to a vista with a top view of the river before it fell, the Equestrian land mass behind it, full of fields, orchards, and wispy clouds. There was one bench where visitors could sit and appreciate the pony nation in all its glory.
On the bench sat the pony wizard, Blue Star, dressed in clothing unworn by any other pony in a thousand years. His small stature belied his true power, trained and hardened to tackle the likes of King Sombra. The pensive figure barely noticed his grand-daughter had sat down beside him.
“I trust your meeting with Princess Cadance didn’t go well?” the young unicorn ventured.
“What meeting? She went to Ponyville by chariot, and has apparently been injured; broke her wings in an explosion.” Blue Star rummaged through his wizard’s robes and pulled out a scroll. “In her stead, an Equestrian Prince heard our case, and...” He opened up the scroll with his magic.
“Hmm,” Cherry Lush droned lazily, “A Writ of Banishment. Surprise, surprise.”
“The pompous fool,” he spat.
“It would have been quite difficult to explain to that simple-minded moron that the epoch tree was no longer in your care,” the laid back mare explained. “We should definitely seek an audience with Twilight Sparkle.”
Blue Star was shaking his head slowly. “I spent my whole life protecting it, and this is the thanks I get,” he lamented, rubbing his artificial left hind limb; a gift from one of his many fights with Sombra. “And Twilight’s brother is the Prince, remember?”
“Ah,” she nodded slowly. “Still, the Equestrian bloodline has just begun to infiltrate our fair nation. There is still time to supplant them.”
Blue shuddered. “To think that fat-flanked bimbo still reigns supreme even though her more capable sister has finally returned.”
“Uh, yeah, on that…” the mare of shadow interrupted.
By the look of her, she’d been saving this one for maximum conversational value. Blue got his bags of pretzels, cookies, and other confection at the ready. “Don’t keep me in suspense.”
Cherry’s eyes lit up. “It seems Equestria has created a powerful new adversary.”
Blue’s countenance saddened out of disappointment. “Another buffoon for them to chew up and spit out.”
“Well this one took on Celestia, and won.”
Blue Star was unsure if he should believe this kid or not, and didn’t know how to react. “Young lady, do not tease me.”
“His name is Ravage, and it was his warship that cast Celestia through the Ponyville town hall tower, and reduced her quarters to a heap of rubble.” Her smile was genuine. Finally, somepony came along that can stand up to that cretin!
“Ravage?” The wizard’s curiosity was more than piqued.
“Yes. A new kind of earth pony called a Decepticon. His people are talented in machine craft.”
“Tell me more,” Blue Star requested.
“Before anything happened, he was minding his own business in Ponyville. But the Elements of Harmony took an interest in him.”
Blue almost visibly wretched. “The poor sod.”
“Well, the Equestrian intelligence apparatus paid more attention to him, ya know, having gained the attention of their precious Elements. I found out and I tried to get a date myself, but - euch! - Flitter got to him first.” She lolled out her tongue as if sick.
“Clearly, his judgment of mares is lacking,” the old stallion guessed, rubbing his chin.
“Oh, we’ve only gotten started!”
Blue let his head roll back. “I’m going to have to start taking my heart medicine again, aren’t I?”
To the crunch of sweet and salty park snacks, Cherry Lush spent the better part of the afternoon bringing her grandfather up to speed on the recent drama in Equestria.
Blue Star ponderously rubbed his hooves together. “I’m not a fan of Cadance like you are,” he started, curbing the cruel chuckle that wanted to come out when he thought of the barn blowing up beside her, “but the animosity between her and Ravage could prove useful.”
“How do you figure?” Cherry had thought it could only hinder their plans.
“As you indicated, Luna lusts after Ravage without semblance of reason.” He decided to overlook the fact Luna thought Ravage was an ‘alien’. Poor thing’s been trapped on the moon for a thousand years. The psychological damage would manifest eventually. “Chaos breeds opportunity.”
“Nothing new here.” Cherry was still waiting for the idea only wisdom can provide.
“This is Cadance’s doing.”
She paused, trying to process what Blue was saying. “Not Discord? Not a potion? Not a Changeling spell? That’s a pretty big accusation, for which I’m certain you have irrefutable proof.”
Blue continued. “If we want to have the new royalty to be of our people, and the Crystal Empire out of the hooves of Equestria, then it will serve our purposes best if we completely discredit Cadance. Keep in mind love magic is her stock and trade.”
That sounded nefarious. Going after one of the heroes that saved the Crystal Empire from Sombra? Yes, she definitely wanted her boy toy gone, and a royal line of the Crystal Empire instated, but was this the way?
The old wizard caught on to his grand niece’s hesitation. “Changing ponies into alicorns takes a lot of time, patience and enormous amounts of magical power. Do you think that a pony with a crystal heart cutie mark just happened to come along at the time when Sombra’s curse ended?”
“Yes, I do. That’s providence,” Cherry responded confidently.
“And should providence be allowed to hand over the Crystal Empire that motley crew of miscreants that are leading Equestria?” a wild eyed Blue Star asked.
Cherry Lush thought on this. “It doesn’t sound just.”
“Equestria has been gathering its strength; three new alicorns in less than two decades. If they get five, then no force will be able to oppose them. Even the Lord of Chaos has joined them.”
“He will eventually betray them. He is Discord,” she chuckled.
“If only to be free of their grasp, yes he will.”
It was time to get back to business. “Okay, how do we kick Equestria out,” the determined unicorn mare reminded. “Cadance has the crystal heart as her cutie mark, and ya know, was instrumental in freeing the Crystal Empire recently, so she’s pretty legit.”
“That cannot be undone,” Blue admitted. “But, instead of banishing Cadance from the Crystal Empire,” his eyes narrowing at the formation of a plan, “What if she were banished from Equestria?”
That idea hit the shadow mare hard enough to give her pause. “Only Celestia and Luna have the power to do that, and only together.” Cherry Lush gasped as a thought struck her. “The bond!”
“Oh? What about the bond?” her grandfather asked mischievously.
“If it is allowed to grow unchallenged, then Luna will be forcibly turned to Ravage’s side.” The wizard was nodding slowly, agreeably. “This could cause another massive rift between the Royal Sisters, and give us the opportunity we need, but how are we supposed to blame Cadance for this? Like it or not, her husband is a paragon of virtue, and won’t tolerate his wife influencing the feelings of other ponies.”
“That’s right,” Blue Star agreed. “Nevertheless, we need to be rid of him, as well as cut Cadance’s ties to Equestria.”
“Okay,” Cherry began, getting all her ducks in a row. “I’m in as long as we’re only trying to get Ravage and Luna together. Cadance must be proven to be the one behind the love bond. How do we test for it?”
Blue Star fixed his eyes on a point in the sky ahead, a myriad details being organized into a plan. “Leave that to me.”
=^.^=
The Decepticon spy trudged through the dank wood and gnarled roots of the Everfree, kicking up dead leaves, twigs, and mud, the streams of black matter increasing in intensity as he went. The satellites kept him updated on his progress toward the convergence of the superstreams. As he neared his destination, the stream intensity increased till it was a black matter blizzard, and included more than the occasional superstream, yet they passed harmlessly through his body. It was as if the light of a quasar was radiating beyond the trees. By the time the forest was finally cleared, Ravage’s black matter detector was nearly saturated, bleached by white light. He turned it off.
Ahead of him lay a meadow peppered with little blue flowers, strangely in the thick of the dense foliage. Meadows mixing with forest was nothing new, but a satellite photograph showed it to be a light green spot, a blemish in the otherwise emerald sea of the Everfree. He proceeded.
The stallion spy was expecting something ancient, like a moss-covered monument, or giant gem of some kind, but there was nothing. The plush little blue flowers waggled and waved as he explored. He turned the detector’s gain to a tenth of a percent of its initial setting, and discovered that it was the pollen that was absorbing all the black matter. The logical conclusion was that this pollen was intensely charged with magic.
A voice hollered, “Well, this is a welcome sight!”
Ravage turned his head to the voice and discovered Aster, hovering high with a stern look, her forelegs crossed; just out of his proximity alert range.
She shook her head slowly, sourly, “You attacked my Princess without provocation.”
“Celestia and Cadance attacked me...”
“LUNA did not.”
Ravage was beginning to understand the source of her ire, though he definitely wanted to neutralize, if not eliminate Luna. “How did you find me?”
“A little bird told me, jackass! Now listen up. Your escort is in Ponyville. You are to land your ship there IMMEDIATELY,” she screamed.
Ravage found himself - trembling? If he just transformed and shot her, or even used his rear mounted weapons to turn her into a bloody sponge she would cease to bother his investigation. Annoying male pony body.
Aster prepared to unleash a barrage of insults when - what in Equestria was happening to his body! It can’t be true! The black thing shot up from the ground and quickly flew up to her. Wait - it can fly!
“What did you call me?” it asked in an otherworldly voice.
But Aster would not be deterred. She’d fought bigger foes. “I called you a jackass, Jackass.” A black. Metal. Panther. Just as written in the report. She smirked. “Like your new name?”
“I could crush you like a worm,” the steel monstrosity advised.
“And ruin the bargain you just struck? Go ahead.” She flung her forelegs wide, completely exposing herself. “Well, go on. Make Luna hate you.”
Ravage’s arm snapped out like a cobra, gripping Aster’s neck and squeezing. He looked upon her oxygen deprived head with cold, clinical fascination.
Luna’s right hand mare struggled to breathe, her back legs flailing against his cold, unyielding armor, while her forelegs tried to undo his grip. She tried to talk, but only gibberish came out.
Ravage did not expect the random pony to be so cavalier with her own life, so he threw her by the neck as far as he could. She doubled over a few times in mid air, but managed to recover, and flew away coughing and wheezing.
“What a strange pony,” Ravage remarked, still not understanding her bravado. But there was something she said that continued to bother him. She said ‘a welcome sight’. Surely she did not mean him. He hovered down to the field below, before he stopped, having figured out that she meant the pollen. Whatever magic it discharged must be great indeed, and this field was singularly the most powerful source of magic he’d yet encountered, even compared to the alicorns. Since no reaction occurred from exposure to the pollen, he must not have triggered such magic, at least not observably.
Then a more pressing matter came to the forefront of his thoughts. That slagging escort!
=^.^=
Ravage was on the bridge of his ship, hovering over the meadow. It was time to fully expose himself. No more cover. How did he let this happen?
He disagreed with landing near Ponyville. He could have disobeyed and landed by a less agitated, more inert town.
His disguise design was very flawed. Planned for maximum social acceptance, it attracted the mares around him like a magnet. Had this been a typical species with roughly equal numbers of males and females, he may have actually been able to slip in unnoticed. A body that elicited medium social acceptance was the correct design. Too late to fix that.
He made the terrible decision to date these mares. His former coworkers, Bo and Micah, analysed this decision in the harsh light of logic, and found it questionable. These were local ponies who knew how society worked and had his best interests at heart, and still he did not save himself from his own stupidity! He should never have started dating, integration be damned!
And finally, there was the worst offense. He transformed in front of Fluttershy, and gave her the name of his people, not to mention the name of his leader. And why? Because she was distraught at the thought of losing him, and he wanted to, no, needed to make her feel better. A decidedly un-pony robot mode should have made her glad she wouldn’t see him anymore. Instead, the opposite effect occurred, curse these ponies!
He sacrificed his cover so that Fluttershy may feel better. Some spy he was. He felt so little, unable to cope with the witch’s brew of hormones and neurochemistry. The chemicals that made flesh creatures feeble and wretched proved too strong even for his will power. What made Fluttershy so special that he would do this? Even in robot mode, he felt his heart run cold as the answer was as plain as the olfactory sensors in his face.
“I - I like her.” He slinked back in his chair at this admission, overwhelmed by the foul stench of failure.
And then his old friend, anger, came to his aid. This was not okay. This was not RIGHT! A Decepticon cannot like a squishy flesh creature. They cannot fight along his side. They cannot plot the destruction of the Autobots, whereas Ravage would be happy to live in a universe with no Autobots in it. He had acquired a disease, and changing back to his old Decepticon form was the cure.
To get the cure, he must go through the escort, and fly through the wormhole to freedom.
With his new directive came new determination, and he sped toward Ponyville. He released the dorsal plasma cannon, both forward ventral fusion cannons, and both forward ventral chain guns from their enclosures and programmed the predicted target range to front and center. If the ponies were going to give him a hard time, they will pay a high price.
Within a minute he was hovering over the town. The park was a good place to land, but then he would have to deal with the prying eyes of the locals as well as his ill-fated escort. To the west, however, were the wide open spaces of Applejack’s farm. A couple of pegasi approached his ship and seemed to be giving him signals with their forelegs.
Whatever. He did not wish to waste time guessing and went straight to Applejack’s. He landed in a fairly flat field. Several ponies charged toward his prone position, and he pointed the starboard chain gun at them. That stopped them in their tracks and he didn’t have to fire a shot.
“Might as well get this over with.” He transformed into pony mode and went to the front undercarriage door, opening it. Gingerly he stepped down, and was greeted by warm, sweet winds, humidity, and a few butterflies. To his front and left was the ruined barn. The ponies he pointed the chain gun at had reversed their direction. Good! Now all he had to do was wait. He would allow a single pony to approach his ship.
There was a great flash, as a group of ponies teleported right in front of him! He snapped into a battle stance, his teeth gritted, rear mounted weapon bay doors opening up and the machine guns assembling themselves in a second. It was then he noticed that he knew these ponies.
Twilight Sparkle was at the front of the group, with her hooves up in the air. “Calm!” she implored. “Please stay calm, Ravage.” She may have looked calm, but her heart was beating rapidly especially since she noticed one of Ravage’s targeting lasers flashing on it.
The Decepticon retracted his rear mounted weapons. Fluttershy was with the group, but he also recognized Flitter, Cloudchaser, Pearl Bliss, Saffron, and Winter. “I am not interested in chatting,” he spat tersely. “Where is my escort!?”
A couple of light chuckles came from the group. Cloudchaser stepped forward. “Ravage,” she pointed to her barrel with a hoof, “We’re your escort.”