//------------------------------//
// Prologue: Darkest Hour 
// Story: Make Friends and Roll Out! 
// by Silent_Witness 
//------------------------------//

"Move, Cat, move!" The massive white robot jumped, and slid down into the crater before him, just barely escaping the artillery volley. He hit the ground running, stumbling slightly, but quickly righted himself. The robotic cheetah ahead of him had little difficulty crossing the blasted terrain, and it was a challenge just to keep up. The white robot would have had no such difficulty in vehicle mode, but the rough terrain would have been impossible to cross in his vehicle mode.

The cheetah looked back over his shoulder. "We got another volley incoming!"

"We need to find some cover, now!" The white robot spotted a massive metallic plate jutting out of the ground. "There!" The white bot's fired a blue beam at the plate from his wrist- the beam caught the edge of the plate and yanked him toward it. He dived behind the plate, and looked back to his ally. "C'mon, Cat!"

"I'm trying, Jazz!" the bot huffed back.

But trying didn't cut it. An artillery shell hit the ground near the cheetah, hurling him forward. The cat-bot slammed into the ground, tumbling end –over-end until he came to a sliding stop near Jazz. Jazz grabbed the cat and pulled him behind cover. He waited until the explosions and the shaking stopped, before looking down at his ally. "You okay, Cat?"

He received no answer. "Hey c'mon Cheetor, answer me!"

Cheetor was silent for a few moments… before he transformed into robot mode and shook himself. "Urgh… I'll live."

Jazz peered over the barrier, only to instantly withdraw in the hail of enemy fire. He stuck his blaster out and fired back blindly. "Aw man, those 'Cons are comin' in fast!" he called. "We need to call in that strike, double-time!"

"On it!" He touched his hand against his communicator! "Cheetor to command, we need an airstrike out here, coordinates one-four-one-" Suddenly, a Vehicon dropped down from on top of the barrier. It aimed its blaster at them, but Cheetor was faster- in one swift move, he rushed forward, bulling a knife from his forearm, and sliced the Decepticon's arm off. Before it could react, he pulled another knife from his other forearm and stabbed it directly into its visor.

"Say again, Cheetor?" a voice at the other end of the comlink asked.

"I repeat, calling in airstrike on coordinates one-four-one by two-three…" Cheetor trailed off as he became aware of the deep rumble of a powerful engine. He looked up, just in time to see a Decepticon tank roll up alongside his and Jazz's position. The tank began to shift and transform, the robot it changed into absolutely towering over the two Autobots. It silently aimed its cannon at them, staring down at them coldly behind its visor. Cheetor could only stare up at the massive tank drone. "Oh slag."

But his terror was short-lived. "Rrrraaagggh!" The tank bot was suddenly knocked flat on its face, revealing its attacker- a massive green Autobot nearly as wide as he was tall. But the Autobot wasn't finished- shifting his fists into massive wrecking balls, he jumped on the tank bot's back and began pounding away furiously. The tank drone's hardened armor plating was no match for the Autobot's merciless assault, and the bot was soon rendered little more than a misshapen pile of battered black metal.

The green bot finally looked up at Jazz and Cheetor. "Looks like you two have gotten yourself into some trouble."

"What, us? Nah…" Jazz replied, still firing at the Decepticon advance.

The Autobot took cover, transforming his arms into cannons, and began firing on the Decepticons as well. "So what happened? You were supposed to have called in the strike by now."

"Jazz wanted to double-check the coordinates," Cheetor replied. "So I climbed up on a ridge to verify. Then I got spotted. Thanks, Jazz."

"Hey, it ain't my fault you got spotted," Jazz replied.

"Of course it is! I mean if you…" Cheetor suddenly saw movement out of the corner of his optic. He looked- behind Bulkhead, in spite of its damage, the tank drone was somehow still active and aiming its cannon toward the Autobot. "Bulkhead look out!" Cheetor aimed… But before he could fire, a searing beam of white light shot through the tank drone's head, leaving a smoldering hole. It wavered for a moment, before collapsing, offline. Bulkhead glanced back, before looking to Cheetor. "Don't worry," he said. "I have my own guardian angel."

"Cheetor's right, Bulkhead," a small voice said. A small winged organic darted over the tank drone and hid behind the metal plate as well. "I won't always be around to watch your back, you know." She peeked over the barrier as well, firing bright beams at the Decepticons from her necklace. "Is everyone okay?"

"We're just fine, Fluttershy," Cheetor replied. "Didn't expect to see you on the front lines."

"Bulkhead and I are partners. We look out for each other."

"Hey uh, don't mean to interrupt but we got 'Cons coming in!" Jazz called.

"This is getting ridiculous…" Bulkhead said. "We might be good, but we can't take on the whole Decepticon army by ourselves!" He touched his comlink. "This is Bulkhead, calling Canterlot! We're pinned down at Point Beta and need support ASAP!"

None of them could have anticipated the response that came. "I'm on my way!"

Fluttershy glanced over for a moment in-between shots. "Was that-"

She never finished. At that moment, the air was filled with the roar of an engine as a Cybertronian truck soared past overhead. It hit the ground hard, almost immediately shifting into a compact red-and-blue robot. Its optics swept over the advancing Decepticon army, before it touched a finger to the side of its head.

"Metroplex, fire on these coordinates!"

"Understood." a massive voice boomed in reply. Far in the distance behind Autobot lines, another machine, one that dwarfed all the others fired shell after shell from his shoulder mounted cannons. The shells arced across the sky, before slamming into the Decepticon army. Shell after shell bombarded the Vehicons, swallowing the advancing horde in massive bursts of fire. The bombardment finally came to an end, leaving a massive hole in the Decepticon line.

Without delay, the red robot signaled to its forces. "Autobots, advance!"

A heavily-armored pony on a motorcycle roared past almost immediately. The chainguns mounted to the pony blazed away, cutting down every Vehicon in their path, while the nimble cycle easily evaded return fire.

"Bon Bon, you might want to conserve your ammo until we reach the Nemesis," the motorcycle said.

Bon Bon ignored the motorcycle, firing a rocket into the advancing columns. "I'll blast every Decepticon that tries to stop me from saving Lyra, Prowl- I don't care if I have to blow through Megatron himself."

Suddenly, a shell struck the ground nearby. Bon Bon was thrown off of Prowl, while Prowl himself was tossed into the air. The motorcycle bot transformed in mid-air, catching the pony and holding her against his chest. He crashed into the ground back-first, shielding Bon Bon from the impact. With a groan, he looked down at her and asked, "…Are you alright?"

Bon Bon groaned, and looked up at Prowl. "Look out!" Without waiting, she fired another rocket, blowing a nearby Vehicon to bits. Bon Bon hopped off and fired into the surrounding horde of Vehicons, allowing Prowl to rise and join the fray as well- Prowl was unarmed, but as a master of several Cybertronian martial arts, that meant little. With ease he rushed another nearby Vehicon and delivered several jabs to its legs- in response, the Vehicon's servomotors shattered, and it toppled over. The ninja-bot then pulled a shuriken from its leg and threw it at another Vehicon, embedding it deep in its faceplate.

Prowl backed up tossing shuriken after shuriken into the advancing Vehicons, his training- and smaller size- allowing him to dodge their fire with ease. When he and Lyra backed into each other, only a few remained. "Hmph. They weren't so tough," Bon Bon said, blowing apart another Vehicon.

"Don't forget our mission, Bon Bon- were supposed to be rescuing the hostages, not fighting the Decepticons," Prowl warned.

"What's the difference?" Bon Bon asked as her chainguns perforated a Vehicon. "We can't do one without doing the other."

"Fair enough…" Prowl sliced the arm off another Vehicon with a well-aimed shuriken throw. "But we have our own mission to accomplish." Now only one Vehicon remained- Prowl grabbed another shuriken and cocked his arm back…

But before he could throw, a bot with a wheel where its feet should have been roared past, slicing the Vehicon diagonally from shoulder to waist. As the Vehicon fell apart, two more wheelbots raced past.

"Hahaha! Oh man did you see that?" the lead bot laughed. "I was like, wa-bam!" She swung her sword again, effortlessly decapitating another Vehicon.

"Scootaloo, focus," another bot said, one that had Apple Bloom's voice. "We're supposed to be helping the Autobots."

The Scoota-bot turned around to face them, rolling backwards. "I know, but no one said we can't have fun while we're doing it."

The third pointed, and yelled with Sweetie Belle's voice, "More explody things!"

"Spread out!" The Apple-bot ordered. The three scattered, just as Ratchet had instructed them to, weaving erratic paths to avoid the incoming shells. Apple-bot and Sweetie-bot avoided the artillery fire. The Scoota-bot was not so fortunate- a nearby blast knocked her onto her faceplate. She tried to stand, but simply could not find her footing.

The Sweetie-bot and Apple-bot rolled up to their fallen friend. "C'mon Scootaloo, we have to keep moving!" Sweetie Belle shouted.

"I'm trying! But this stupid drone won't stand up!" She looked down, and discovered why- her lower wheel had been blown off. "Guys, I think we might be in trouble."

"I can't say I'm surprised," a new voice suddenly said. Two Autobots rolled up: a boxy white one, and a Vehicon- hastily repainted red. A white unicorn climbed out of the white one, hurrying to Scoota-bot's side, before both vehicles transformed. Ratchet knelt down at the cycle drone's side as well, inspecting the damage. "Girls, Macintosh, covering fire."

The red-painted Vehicon lifted raised its minigun and aimed it at the advancing Decepticon columns and replied, "Eeyup." He fired- Apple-bot and Sweetie-bot followed his lead.

Ratchet looked to the unicorn. "Rarity, I'm going to need two struts, an axle, and a wheel."

"Right away, doctor." Rarity touched the Element of Harmony at her neck, and began constructing the parts Ratchet requested.

"And Scootaloo…" Ratchet began as he started removing one of the Scoota-bot's damaged struts. "…these cycle drones might be remote-controlled, but please try to keep them from getting blown up. We need every soldier out here. Every soldier."

"Incoming!" Macintosh shouted. He took aim at a Decepticon fighter heading straight toward him, but the craft easily dodged the hail of gunfire. The others began to fire as well, to no avail. The fighter fired a pair of green bolts at the Autobot group- were it not for the ward Rarity hastily cast, the superheated plasma would have melted the Autobots with ease.

Rattrap watched the red Seeker through the scope of his null ray, but didn't fire. The flyer banked, and made another pass over Ratchet and his team, bombarding them with another round of plasma.

"You stopped firing," Hot Shot said. He pulled the trigger of his rifle, and the battlefield echoed with a resonating bang.

"I'm tracking a target that's harassing Ratchet's team." Bang. "A red Seeker…" Bang. "That's… Thundercracker, right?" Bang.

"No." Bang. "You're looking at Skywarp." Bang. "Thundercracker's blue." Bang.

Rattrap took aim at the Seeker's thrusters. Bang. Direct hit- the Decepticon fighter caught fire and spiraled out of control and crash into the ground. "Well whoever he is, he's just been grounded."

"Then you might want to have a look at Point Epsilon- Warpath's position is being overrun."

"On it." As he aimed his rifle toward the position Hot Shot indicated, he happened to spot something that immediately caught his attention. "Whoa, that's… Bruticus! And Wheeljack's taking him on all by himself!"

"Rattrap, focus. Point Epsilon, now."

Rattrap huffed. "Yeah, yeah…"

"Rrrragh!" Bruticus raised a foot, and drove it towards the small Autobot before him. But Wheeljack wasn't intimidated- he leapt back, avoiding the crushing blow. Before Bruticus could withdraw, he sprinted up the Decepticon combiner's leg and drove his sword deep into the knee joint. Bruticus staggered back, aiming his flamethrower at the Autobot, but Wheeljack evaded the flames with ease.

"Come on, stop trying to hit me and hit me!" Wheeljack called.

"Then stand still you little pest!" Bruticus bellowed, raising his foot again to stop on Wheeljack. Wheeljack evaded, pulled a grenade off his chassis and threw it at the massive bot, the explosion sending the Decepticon combiner reeling. Had Bruticus been whole, the battle would have been much more challenging, and therefore much more interesting. But without Swindle, and with only one arm to defend himself, there was little the combiner could do aside from stomp, fire his flamethrower, and shout empty threats.

Wheeljack dodged yet another burst of fire. "Don't do so well when you're down a teammate, do you?"

"Your buddies might've killed Swindle, but don't forget there's still four of us, and only one of you! Combaticons, separate!" Instantly, Bruticus's sole arm detached and rocketed into the air, shifting into the robotic form of Blast Off. His torso detached, its form shifting into Onslaught, as the legs revealed the robotic forms of Vortex and Brawl.

"Great idea, boss!" Brawl shouted. "There's no way he can take on all of us!"

Wheeljack drew his other sword. "Wanna bet on that?"

The Combaticons took aim at Wheeljack, but Blast Off spotted something rapidly approaching their position. "Bombing run! Scatter!" he shouted.

Wheeljack and the Combaticons- sans Brawl- ran for cover. The Decepticon tank simply looked to the sky and asked, "Huh?" He looked up just in time to take an Autobot missile to the chestplate- the explosion sent him tumbling end-over-end until he came to a skidding halt. Brawl groaned, trying to rise to his feet, before he collapsed, entering stasis lock.

Rainbow Dash looked back over her shoulder. "Did you get Bruticus? I can't see!"

"Eyes forward, Rainbow Dash," Jetfire ordered. "You're supposed to be covering me."

"Right." She then brought up a hoof to her headset and listened, before saying, "Copy that, Rhinox We're on our way!" She looked over at the Aerialbot. "Rhinox just called in a strike at his position, ASAP!"

"He'll have to hold out for a minute- I'm out of missiles." He then said into his comlink, "Jetfire to base, I'm en route and in need of ammunition. Repeat, Jetfire returning to base in need of ammo resupply."

"Acknowledged, Jetfire. Platform 2 is being prepped and will be ready upon your arrival."

Jetfire and Rainbow banked hard and began flying toward the mountain with a castle built into its side. Next to it, Metroplex fired shell after shell into the Decepticon ranks. "Wow…" Rainbow said. "Glad that guy's on our side."

"You and me both." But on his radar, Jetfire could see two bogeys approaching their six. "Oh great, just what we need… Rainbow, behind us!"

"I'm on it!" Rainbow Dash turned to face their enemies: a jet drone and a helicopter drone. She concentrated- the Element of Harmony on her neck glowed brightly, before a bright red beam shot out of it. The beam sliced the jet drone cleanly in two, but the copter drone evaded the beam with surprising ease, and returned fire; the pegasus evaded, but the Aerialbot's aft was peppered by small arms fire. "Aw man, aren't those copter drones supposed to be the slow ones?"

"Stop complaining and start firing!" Jetfire ordered. "Every shot that lands keeps me out of the sky that much longer!"

Rainbow focused, and fired another beam. The second attack struck home, burning a hole straight through the copter. Its momentum kept it in the air a few moments before it was consumed by a fiery explosion. "Got 'em."

"Hold on, we've got another contact at 12 o'clock," Jetfire said.

Rainbow faced forward again. "Is it another 'Con?"

"No, it… It came from the palace! I think it's-" Suddenly, a sphere shining a blinding gold light shot past the two, toward the Nemesis.

The glowing sphere crashed into the ground, vaporizing an entire squad of Vehicons unfortunate enough to be caught beneath it. Others trained their guns on the light and fired, but their rounds merely rebounded off the sphere's surface. Then, the sphere shone even brighter for a moment, before releasing a powerful explosion. A few Vehicons began to retreat- most stood their ground. But in either case, the explosion completely obliterated the surrounding Vehicons, not leaving behind even a single atom. The sphere faded away, revealing a winged unicorn with a brilliant white coat, its sparkling mane fluttering in the breeze. Her normally serene expression was gone, replaced by one of immeasurable fury. Without a moment's hesitation, she continued her advance on the Nemesis.

Though a great many Vehicons had been vaporized by the explosions, by no means had all been neutralized, and those that remained moved to intercept their new target. A tank drone moved into her path, taking aim- with ease, the winged unicorn magically lifted the drone, flipped it over, and slammed it headfirst into the ground, shattering its processor and sending it offline instantly. Another Vehicon took aim- she fired a bolt of lightning at it, over-stimulating the Energon reserves inside its body and blowing it apart in a thunderous explosion. Another tried to stop her, as did the next, and the one after that. But every Decepticon that stood before her met with a swift, brutal end.

Though she struck down any and every Decepticon foolish enough to bar her path, Celestia was only interested in one. And soon enough, she found him- a terrifying beast of a machine, his unpainted metal plating dully reflecting the fires of the battlefield, bellowing orders and firing his massive cannon indiscriminately into the advancing Autobot lines. The machine seemingly took no notice of the Princess.

Celestia drew herself to her full height, and said in the Royal Canterlot Voice, "Megatron."

The Decepticon leader ceased firing, his electronic eyes falling on her. "Ah, Princess Celestia…" Megatron said. "I see that you're well."

Bolts of magical energy began to arc across Celestia's horn. "Give. Back. My sister."

"You are quite bold to think you can demand anything from me, fleshling." Megatron pointed a sharpened finger at Celestia. "If you truly wish to reunite with your fellow organic, then take her from me."

"With pleasure." A ray of light suddenly came down from the sun. It touched Celestia's horn, before firing out at Megatron, striking him directly in the chest plate.

Megatron staggered back, unprepared for the force of the Princess's attack. He looked down at himself, touching the hole she had burned through his plating, before looking back up to her. "…Alright then."

He swung out his arm, firing at the Princess. She quickly cast a magic barrier that deflected the blow, before firing in turn. She aimed for his weak points- his joints, the gaps in his plating, his optics. And where her magic had merely glanced off him before, her attacks now seemed to genuinely hurt the Cybertronian. She deflected what attacks she could not evade, and fired an endless stream of magic at Megatron's weak points.

Shockwave watched the duel between Megatron and Celestia with great interest. "Her technique has improved," he said, "but at this rate she'll exhaust herself before inflicting any serious damage." He shifted his attention to the other viewscreens at his console. Decepticons were the finest warriors in the universe, but even they could be caught off-guard- the Autobot attack had been unexpected, swift, and brutal, leaving their forces scrambling to respond. As he watched the external camera feeds, Shockwave couldn't help but to silently applaud the Autobots' ruthlessness.

But something he spotted on one of the screens immediately caught his attention. "Just as Thundercracker predicted…" Shockwave mumbled, watching as Metroplex bombarded the Vehicon forces. "And yet you said it couldn't be done, Megatron. …This requires a counteroffensive." Shockwave turned away from the console to face the prisoner behind him. He approached her containment unit, and deactivated it. "It is time, your majesty. Awaken him."

Luna looked up at him, head held high in defiance. "No."

He picked her up and carried her to the console. "That was not a request."

"Make me."

Without any hesitation, Shockwave slammed Luna against the console. The small pony cried out in pain, spitting up blood. He then brought her up to optic-level again. "Awaken Trypticon. Now."

"I'd sooner die before helping your kind," Luna spat. "You may as well kill me now."

"And I would- believe me, I would like nothing more than to dissect you and find out exactly how you tick. But, I'm under very strict orders not to kill you." He looked to the viewscreen over the console. "Display brig, camera two." The viewscreen immediately displayed a hundreds of ponies contained in a large cell. He held up Luna so she could see. "However, Lord Megatron gave no such instructions regarding them. …Waspinator, prepare to flood the containment unit with C-2 gas, on my mark."

"No!" Luna cried.

Shockwave turned his attention back to the Princess. "Is there something you wished to say, your majesty?"

Luna gritted her teeth in silence for a moment, before she hung her head. "…I'll do it."

"I knew you were a reasonable creature." Shockwave looked back at the viewscreen. "Waspinator, stand down. The prisoner and I have come to terms."

"Wazzzpinator obeys Eye-Bot." A wasp-like soldier saluted the camera, before the screen went offline.

The Decepticon set Luna down. A few moments passed as he stared down at her, before he said, "Well? It's best not to keep Lord Megatron waiting."

Luna glared up at the Decepticon, but she had no choice but to comply. She focused, her horn beginning to glow. She could feel a presence within the ship, a massive consciousness that dwarfed any other. But it was slumbering, held in a dreamless sleep by magics that she herself had cast. And now, she had no choice but to undo the bonds holding that consciousness down. Slowly, one-by-one, Luna removed the seals keeping the presence in its forced slumber. The sleeping mind stirred, growing more restless with every spell she undid, coming closer and closer to its awakening, until finally…

A deep, rumbling laughter sounded from within the confines of the ship. "Beware. I live."

The red robot plowed through the Decepticon columns, running down any bot unfortunate enough to remain in its path. But as it advanced, it could see the Nemesis begin to move. The robot thought for a moment that it was taking off, but the truth was much, much worse. The metal plating of the ship shifted and retracted, exposing massive servomotors beneath. Slowly, the ship began to stand, revealing its true, massive robotic form. The Decepticon that was the Nemesis reared back, and let out an earsplitting roar.

The red truck activated its comlink. "Metroplex, we have a new target. A big one."

"Moving to engage." The titanic Autobot stomped across the battlefield to meet his equally massive foe. But the red robot turned its attention away from the dueling colossi- it had a mission, and it would see thing through.

Finally, the robot spotted its target- a dull grey Cybertronian with a massive cannon attached to its right arm. Strangely, his back was turned to the Autobot line, and he was firing, as though engaging another target inside his own line. It wasn't until it came closer that the robot realized who.

Celestia sank to her knees, breathing heavily. Megatron approached, picking her up in one hand, and aimed his fusion cannon at her. "I'd originally planned to keep you alive, Princess, but now I see that that's more trouble than it's worth." The muzzle of the fusion cannon began to glow brightly. "But all the same, I still think you'll make a fine trophy."

The red robot transformed, coming to a sliding halt behind the Decepticon leader. "Put the Princess down, Megatron."

Megatron turned to face the red robot- he was so shocked by what he saw that he unceremoniously dropped Celestia. "…O-Optimus?" He shook his head. "N-No. That's impossible! You're dead! I killed you!"

"You're right. You did kill Optimus…" The red robot's head split apart and folded away within its body, exposing its true identity. "…But you have every right to be afraid."

Megatron allowed himself a short burst of laughter. "Me? Be afraid of you? Such conceit is to be expected from your kind, but this goes far beyond simple arrogance. You may strut about wearing his corpse, but you are no Optimus. You are no Prime… Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight held out a fist. "Are you going to talk, Megatron? Or are you going to fight?"

"I thought you'd never ask." Megatron extended a pair of blades from his forearms. "I'm going to enjoy crushing you. You, the Autobots, and every last inhabitant on this pathetic dirt-pile of a planet." He held out and arm and leveled his blade at the red robot, issuing a silent challenge. "One shall stand…"

Twilight extended its own blades, her helmet reassembling. "…and one shall fall."

For a brief moment, the Autobot and the Decepticon merely stared each other down. Then, both tensed, and charged at the other, drawing back their blades to deliver a vicious strike.

The sound of their blades clashing against one another echoed across the universe.

Make Friends and Roll Out!
By: Silent_Witness