//------------------------------//
// Companions 
// Story: War From the Stars 
// by James Pwyll 
//------------------------------//

Having grown up in the environment that she had, Applejack was no stranger to the idea of fixing broken machines. But even she was having a hard time making sense of the scene before her. Elita, down on one knee, looking into an open panel on the side of the Ark. Whatever it was she was doing in there was clearly an attempt at some sort of repair, but what it was she was repairing or even what all those doohickeys inside the thing did was totally beyond the farm girl. So, much as she would have loved to have offered a helping hand, even a relatively small one on her part, she knew she'd just get in the way. Thus, she relegated herself to the sidelines, standing beside Rarity, who was similarly transfixed with the mechanics going on. As for Elita herself, she was completely engrossed in her work, though not so much as to not be willing to strike up a conversation with her audience. "So then...magic powers?"

Rarity, sweeping aside some of her hair, replied. "Indeed. And trust me, the concept was as much of a shock to us as it surely is to you."

Applejack, adjusting her hat slightly, chuckled. "Y'all should've seen how crazy things got fer us when we first got em."

"I can imagine," Elita commented, keeping her eyes on the machinery. "This world is truly strange to us. But, being a mostly-biological one, that was to be expected." Here, she paused, glancing towards the two girls. "Our journey to this place has now been revealed to us to have been a mistake. We thought we were discovering some new energon source, but instead, we find something that simply cannot be used by us."

Rarity hesitated, apparently not wanting to show her ignorance on her matter, and Applejack, quick to pick up on the other girl's feelings, decided to ask in her place. "Sorry ta pry...but what is energon?"

"The lifeblood of my kind," Elita explained. "We Cybertronians could not live without it. And just as you humans require food and air to survive, so does energon provide that vital function for us."

"Huh...guess it would be rather disappointing for you to find it isn't there then," Rarity conceded.

"To put it diplomatically," Elita said with a hint of dismay in her tone.

Applejack, taking off her hat, looked to the Autobot second-in-command with some sympathy. "We never meant fer our powers ta lead ya astray...but we're sorry that they did."

"You needn't apologise," Elita said to her. "We are the ones who made the mistake. We saw something we didn't know, we made assumptions, and now we must cope with the consequences of it."

Rarity, as before, hesitated, but she soon stepped forward with a small smile. "Well, I know this is small comfort, but at least you're here with friends. That's something."

Elita actually smiled to that, nodding in agreement. "I am...and it is indeed a comfort."

Applejack too smiled. "Eyup. No matter how bad things get, ya can always get through it if ya got good folk around ya." Turning to Rarity, the blonde girl reached out and held her hand, prompting a slight blush on the part of the fashionista. "Ain't that right, sugarcube?"

Rarity giggled. "Oh, you have such a way with words, darling."

Elita regarded them, looking from one to the other, then nodded. "Ah, I see. You are committed then?"

This time, it was the turn of both of them to blush, with Applejack nervously scratching the back of her head. "Well, that's certainly one way ta say it."

Elita's smile returned. "You needn't be embarrassed, young ones. You're not the only ones to have experienced romance."

Instantly, Rartity's eyes widened, and appeared to be filled with twinkling lights. Applejack, by contrast, rolled her eyes. "Oh boy, now you've got her goin'."

Rarity stepped forward, hands clasped together as if in prayer. "Oooh! Do tell! Would it be the stoic medic, by any chance?"

Elita chuckled. "No, she's happily single." Rarity then pondered that, but before she opened her mouth again, Elita cut her off. "Nor is it Bumblebee or Chromia. I won't go into details, but trust me when I say those two are a touch too young for me."

With those options off the table, Rarity smiled with understanding. "Ah, I see. You like them tall then?"

Elita turned, taking on a fond expression as she regarded the windows of the ship's bridge high above. "Yes. Optimus and I...well...we are very important to one another." She didn't see the girls look to her with growing interest, and so continued. "We've known each other since before the war began. And even when it was raging, we were inseparable, always on missions together or directing our forces. I'm not sure when it happened, or at what point we both realised it, but..." She looked back down to the open panel. "But there came a day when we knew...how much we meant to each other."

Rarity, placing a hand upon her own chest, sighed with contentment. "How romantic. Love blooming in the inhospitable landscape of a battlefield. It's like a fairy tale."

"Only with more robots an' lasers," Applejack added, earning her a nudge in the side from Rarity's elbow.

Elita considered their words, then nodded. "We may be metal, but hearts beats as fiercely in us as they do in you." A quiet moment passed, and she then looked to the side. "But...our time has been...fraught, to say the least. War does not leave much room for...well...what you have experienced."

Solemnness became the expression on both of the girls, and it fell to Rarity to break the silence that they were going through. "There's always a chance things might get better. And I realise this is small comfort, but...if your feelings for one another have lasted this long, even in the face of all the horrors you've come across..." She smiled. "Then that's proof right there that they'll probably continue for a long time afterwards."

Thinking on that, Elita too smiled. "You are young...but you speak wisely, Miss Rarity."

Applejack chuckled, placing her arm around the other girl. "Trust me, when ya marinate yerself in as much romance as this one does, ya tend ta pick up a lot o' sentiment."

Rarity, rather than be irritated by that, simply smirked to her partner. "Oh come now, Applejack. You know you love it."

Looking to her, Applejack smiled softly. "That ah do, Sugarcube. That ah do."