//------------------------------//
// Study 
// Story: Cybertron Girls 
// by SonicSpeedster97 
//------------------------------//

The crew still on the Ark was a bit surprised to hear that the team was returning so suddenly, but still obliged Bumblebee’s request and made the ship ready. When the team arrived, Red Alert and Sideswipe were the first to see what it was all about and be awed by Applejack’s bot-mode… and the seated Sideswipe was the first to burst out laughing at Trailbreaker and Applejack’s expense. “Yeah-yeah-yeah, yuck it up.” Everyone could tell that Trailbreaker was rolling his eyes at this, even in vehicle mode.
Sideswipe was obviously following his instructions as he just kept right-on laughing as Applejack climbed off Trailbreaker and let him transform. “You might wanna quiet down now, sugarcube. ‘Less you want a first-hand taste of what Ah gave that blue fella.”
“‘Blue’?” Red Alert asked in confusion.
The other Autobots transformed and walked over as their passengers had already disembarked. “Breakdown.” Bumblebee explained quickly. “Honestly, if she’d hit him any harder, I think she might’ve knocked his Spark-chamber out through his back.”
Sideswipe gave an impressed whistle and stood up with his hands raised in surrender. “Okay, point taken.” he relented. “Cmon, Ratchet and Wheeljack are waiting for you in sickbay with Optimus. They’re gonna wanna see this.” With that, Sideswipe led the girls down the ship’s corridors toward sickbay. All the way there, Applejack’s bot-mode drew awed glances from the other Autobots, all obviously amazed to see Applejack in a Cybertronian form.
When they reached sickbay, they saw similar expressions on the faces of Wheeljack and Ratchet, while Optimus appeared to show a sort of stoic awe, almost typical of him. “By the AllSpark…” he remarked.
“Ah don’t entirely understand it either.” Applejack shrugged. “It just happened fer no reason.”
“There’s a reason for everything, Applejack,” Sunset argued. “And this is no different; the Armor didn’t activate until after you were true to your word. Then it locked onto your Geode, and the Geodes are basically this world’s equivalent of the Elements of Harmony. And yours is the Element of Honesty.”
Optimus nodded; he remembered Sunset’s explanation of how the Elements operated when she told the Autobots exactly what had happened in Canterlot City recently. “And Honesty is one of the essential attributes of a great leader.”
That just confused the girls as they looked at Optimus. “Wait, does that mean that when we find the guys to wear the other Armor, AJ’s gonna be their leader?” Rainbow asked, almost in irritation.
“No, it means you girls are gonna be the ones to wear the Armor,” Wheeljack assured, only confusing the girls more.
“How do you know that?” asked Sunset.
Optimus stepped forward to answer this question. “Because when Solus Prime created the Armor, she utilized the energy of one of Cybertron’s most sacred relics. Specifically, this one.” He reached up to his chestplate and parted the two glass panes that formed his vehicle-mode’s windshield, revealing a large gold and silver construct in his chest, glowing blue.

“The Matrix of Leadership; a reliquary handed down from our creator Primus to determine those worthy of the mantle of Prime; leader of the Cybertronian people.”
“Whoa.” Twilight and Sunset were more than awed by the sight of the Matrix, and the explanation of its origin.
“And the Elements of Harmony are all aspects of someone worthy of the Matrix?” Sunset asked finally.
“Indeed, Sunset.” Optimus nodded, looking at each of the girls in turn. “A true Prime must be one who is kind, charitable, loyal, sympathetic, mindful of emotion, brings others together, and of course honest.”
Applejack smiled as he finished on her before she looked at Wheeljack. “Well, guess now’s the time to ask; how do I turn this thing off?”
“I’m not really sure.” Wheeljack shrugged. “I would say tell some sort of lie, but I don’t think that’d work.”
“Maybe there’s some sort of obvious button we’re missing or something,” Rainbow suggested.
Applejack looked over her armor and her eyes locked onto the apple emblem on her collarbone. “Huh. Now, what do ya bet…?”
“Probably.” Ratchet shrugged. “But before you try it, I want to run a bio-scan. See if I can find out what happens to your human body inside this thing; how you can control it and things like that.”
Applejack shrugged. “Guess that’s fair. Let’s do it, Doc.” She simply hopped up onto a surgical table nearby and laid down.
Once she was in position, Ratchet activated a small scanning device on the side of the table, analyzing her complete physical construction. Wheeljack looked over the analysis and was surprised by something. “Huh. Didn’t expect to see that.”
“See what?” Ratchet asked as he looked at the analysis himself, his eyes popping when he saw what Wheeljack was talking about. “Huh. You’re right; that is a surprise. How’s this even possible?”
“What’re you two talkin’ about?” Applejack asked.
“Well, we figured your bot-form wouldn’t have a Cybertronian digestive system, or at the very least, a very rudimentary one. And we were right about that; at a guess, I’d say the only thing your bot-form would be able to safely ingest would be Energon.” Ratchet shrugged. “What we weren’t expecting was this.” He turned the monitor to Applejack and the girls showing what looked like a Cybertronian anatomy model created from Applejack, focused in on her hips.
And highlighted on the screen was a very specific and familiar structure. “Please tell me that’s not what I think it is,” Sunset said in genuine concern.
“Looks like it.” Ratchet nodded. “That’s a Cybertronian reproductive system.”
Applejack couldn’t help but blush at that, her faceplate suddenly turning blue from the Energon. Twilight however was very intrigued. “How’s this even possible?”
“Best guess?” Wheeljack shrugged. “The Armor scanned Applejack’s genetic makeup and created cyber-ova with Cyber-Nucleic Acid coded to approximate the original composition. I’d say it did well, all things considered.”
“Well, long as no one tries anythin’ funny while I’m with ya fellers, I’m happy,” Applejack assured.
“Don’t worry, kid; I think you’re safe on that front.” Ratchet assured. “But while we’re on this topic, I just wanna pan up for a second and…” The image stopped at Applejack’s breasts and Ratchet nodded, his hunch confirmed. “Yup. Look at that; Energo-mammary synthesizers.”
“Huh. This armor doesn’t miss a trick.” Wheeljack nodded. But then he noticed something behind the breast area. “Wait, what’s that in the Spark-Chamber?”
Ratchet saw it too and was intrigued. Quickly, he enhanced the feed and was rather surprised by what he saw. “Huh. Well, that explains a lot.” It appeared to be Applejack’s human body held in a strange set of restraints and life-support tech with a strange cable-like device latched to the back of her head, reaching up her bot-form’s neck to her head. “Looks like your human body’s in the Spark-Chamber, and your nervous systems are linked.”
“What’s that mean?” asked Rainbow.
“It means that any sensory feeling sustained in her bot-form is transitioned to her organic body,” Wheeljack explained. “Pain, pleasure, that sort of thing. If she got shot or stabbed in bot-mode, her human body would feel that same pain.”
“Well, that sounds thoroughly unpleasant.” Rarity shrugged.
“War is always unpleasant, Rarity.” Optimus brought up. “And it is that unpleasantness that has brought the Autobots great medics like Ratchet.”
Ratchet smiled, simply deactivating the display and allowing Applejack to stand up. “You always were a flatterer, Optimus,” he smirked. “I guess that’s one of the things-” He stopped there, as if he knew what he said next might not be appropriate, and quickly cleared his throat. “Sorry Optimus.”
“It is fine, Ratchet,” Optimus assured, simply walking out of sickbay.
“Yeah, looks fine,” Wheeljack muttered under his breath.
“What was that all about?” asked Sunset.
“It’s a long complicated story, Sunset.” Ratchet assured. “And not ours to tell. If you wanna know the details, I’d suggest you ask Optimus. Later, of course.”
Applejack simply nodded and reached up to the apple button on her chest… before she noticed something on her wrist. “What’n tarnation? What’s this doohickey?”
“‘Doohickey’?” Wheeljack seemed intrigued as he looked at her wrist and was amazed by the silver band he saw. “This is no ordinary doohickey; this is a wearable Cybertronian data drive. There’s only one person who could’ve built this kind of tech into the Armor.”
“Alpha Trion.” Twilight realized. “It must contain part of the map to the AllSpark.”
“Only thing it could be. Ratchet, get me a computer-interface cable.” Wheeljack’s order was quickly followed and the cable was linked between the drive on Applejack’s wrist and the ship’s computer. “Teletraan-1, copy all data on this drive to the Ark’s navigational computer bank.” Teletraan quickly obliged as the system beeped and flickered for a good few seconds. Once done, Wheeljack unplugged Applejack’s drive from the system and opened up the navigational database. But what he saw confused him. “Hmm. Maybe you should take a look, Twilight; it may just be because I don’t know this planet all that well, but I can’t headlight or tailpipe of this data.”
Twilight climbed up to the computer screen and looked at the data, finding that it displayed a fragmented 3D model of the Earth. “It must take all seven components of the map to get a precise read.” she theorized.
“Then we have to figure out how you girls can activate the rest of the Armor units. Fast.” Ratchet was more than right; if they were to beat the Decepticons in the race to the AllSpark, they would have to act fast.