Transformers: Equestria's Darkest Hour

by JDPrime22

In Search of Companions

INTEL: Cliffjumper may not be the largest Autobot around, but he doesn't let that get in the way of picking fights with Decepticons. Fearless and brash, Cliffjumper's favorite weapons happen to be his fists. Despite his short temper, he gets along well with the other Autobots, who appreciate his eagerness to take the first shot in every battle.

Jetfire zoomed across the Equestrian skies and over Ponyville. Even at night, some fire still remained in the town that gave a bright glow to the town from a far distance. But he didn’t worry about that; he worried about the mission at hand.

“I’m directly above the Everfree Forest,” Jetfire shouted to his passengers on his back, “You two will have to jump off and follow the tracks from there!”

Jazz climbed to his feet and shouted just as loud, “It’ll have to do, Jetfire!” He turned his head back and smiled, “You ready, Cliffjumper?”

Cliffjumper returned the smile and held his fist triumphantly in the air.

“Always!”

Jetfire got lower to the ground but didn’t hold off on the speed. He chuckled a bit before shouting over the heavy winds, “Don’t try and have too much fun without me!”

Jazz nodded and said, “Alright, just keep your comms open in case the rescu-ERS need some rescu-ING! HAHA, let’s do it!” He held out his fist and Cliffjumper returned the fistbump. The two of them stood at the edge of Jetfire’s very small hull until they jumped.

Cliffjumper felt the wind pass his face with such intense speeds that he almost ignored the ground. He planted his feet downward and landed perfectly with Jazz by his side. The two Autobots were suddenly met with several trees in their vision and heavy winds trying to push them back.

Cliffjumper held up his arm and shouted, “The wind’s startin’ to pick up! Optics barely workin’!”

“Quickly, we gotta find cover!” Jazz screamed with his arms in front of his face. Cliffjumper followed behind Jazz as they past several trees. They finally came to a short clearing where the two Autobots finally found out what was causing these strong winds.

A massive storm cloud was heading their way. From the looks of it, it seemed to have come from the Badlands and is now entering the Everfree Forest. Jazz grunted when he had to hop over a collapsed tree, “Jetfire, this is Jazz, keep a sharp eye out for us in case we need a lift after we save the ponies.”

Jetfire answered in the comms link, “No problem. And don’t get killed out there, Optimus kinda needs you guys.”

Cliffjumper still had his arm covering his face as he and Jazz continued to trek through the forest. He managed a smile and asked, “So what were you sayin’ before…about that cover?”

“O-oh yeah,” Jazz shouted and pointed to a large cave not too far away, “this way!”

The two Autobots finally made it to the cave right when the rain began to fall. Jazz and Cliffjumper both stared out of the dark cave and watched as every little droplet of water splashed on the green grounds. Jazz thought for a moment before coming up with a quick solution.

“Cliff,” Jazz said as Cliffjumper turned his head towards him, “how about you follow the tracks on the ground, I’ll provide covering fire from the tree lines if ya need me.”

Cliffjumper smiled and said, “You just don’t wanna stay on the ground because you’re scared of the all the monsters in this forest huh?”

“You wish!” Jazz shouted and used his grappling hook on the nearest tree. He was instantly pulled forward and soon disappeared in the trees. Cliffjumper walked out of the cave and activated his subsonic repeater before checking his surroundings.

His comms link came to life with Jazz saying, “Cliff, follow the tracks, man, and I’ll stay in the trees. I’ll watch out for ya in case any type of ‘monster’ comes out.”

“Hehe, sure thing.” Cliffjumper chuckled and looked at the ground. Optimus was right, the Changelings did come this way after they captured the ponies, he could see the drag marks left in the dirt followed by several horseshoe tracks.

“Jazz, I found the tracks, but this rain keeps messing it all up.” Cliffjumper grunted and tried harder and harder to find the right path as he pushed his way through the forest.

Jazz answered, “That’s probably what the Changelings wanted. They knew this storm was coming this way and they wanted their tracks covered as soon as possible.”

“Who knew bugs were this smart?” Cliffjumper commented and pushed away several branched in his way. The forest was beginning to get darker every few cycles. The wind was getting stronger and the rain pounded harder, but that wasn’t stopping Cliffjumper from saving his friends.

It was getting pretty boring just traversing this massive forest when Jazz sounded as if he had seen a ghost. “C-Cliffjumper! Quickly, use your cloaker and get to cover!”

Cliffjumper ignored the questions in his head and activated his cloaker. Soon enough, his entire form was completely invisible. But to ensure his safety, Cliffjumper hid behind the nearest rocks and looked over the edge.

He whispered in his comms link, “What’s goin’ on, Jazz?”

“Cloaking works best if you keep quiet.” Jazz answered in an equally whispering tone.

Cliffjumper kept quiet and just listened. His hearing processors caught the sounds of growling and stomping of footsteps quite close to his position. It wasn’t long before the sounds were gone and only the whistling of wind was audible.

“What was that?” Cliffjumper asked as his cloaker died out and he came out from his hiding position. He continued his journey as Jazz quickly answered.

“I surely have no idea. They had glowing green eyes and seemed to be made out of….wood.”

“This planet’s awesome.” Cliffjumper smiled and continued his journey.

It was a quiet conversation between the two Autobots. Jazz was flinging from tree to tree while Cliffjumper tried his hardest to locate the tracks. But the rain had done its job and removed the trail. Cliffjumper grunted and pressed the side of his head, “Jazz, the rain ruined everything. I can’t find the trail.”

Jazz answered, “Do ya see anything?”

Cliffjumper squinted and looked all around him. The trail was gone and the dark forest began to grow even darker now that the moon was blocked out from the storm clouds. But he did catch something…something glowing.

“Jazz, I got somethin’!” Cliffjumper shouted and jogged over to the light. It was getting brighter until he stumbled into a clearing. There he found it…a small hut.

“Jazz, I seemed to come across…a house of some sort.” Cliffjumper said and moved closer to the hut. It wasn’t long before Jazz answered him.

“Does it point to something small and adorable named Pinkie Pie?” Jazz asked.

“Uhhh….no.” Cliffjumper sighed and looked inside the window. No one was inside but there seemed to be several book scattered across the room with a large cauldron in the middle. It was bubbling with a small fire underneath it. “Guess someone forgot to put that out.” Cliffjumper smiled and turned around to leave.

“What are you doing near my house, scurrying around like a common mouse?!”

Cliffjumper screamed like a female Autobot and looked around. Nothing was attacking him, nothing was harming him, nothing happened. He recoiled and put away his subsonic repeater.

“I’m a down here, can you not hear?”

Cliffjumper flinched and looked down quickly. Standing there was a black and white pony with her neck covered in golden rings. Her left foreleg was also covered in rings and her right ear had a large ring attached to it. She had an umbrella attached to her back which allowed her to stay dry and a saddlebag filled with plants or something.

She spoke again with her blue eyes observing the Autobot up and down, “You are one of those aliens I hear about all the time,” she noticed the Autobot giving her an odd look, “are you confused about my rhyme?”

Cliffjumper forced a nervous smile and said, “Yeah….kinda.”

She chuckled and introduced herself, “My name is Zecora.”

“Name’s Cliffjumper,” The Autobot smiled and held out his hand. Zecora smiled and shook his hand with her tiny hoof.

She broke it and smiled, “What they say is true about you, Autobot; you are nice and peace-loving, are you not?”

“I am, Miss Zecora.” Cliffjumper smiled before he suddenly remembered his mission. His smile faded as he made his way past the zebra. “I’m sorry I had to cut our conversation short, but I’m sure you know about the Element Bearers being captured right?”

Zecora nodded as the Autobot continued, “Well, my teammate and I are going to save them…but…”

Zecora took a step forward and asked, “What is wrong, my friend, any helpful hoof I could lend?” Cliffjumper stopped and turned back towards the zebra. He smiled at her as she returned it.

“Actually,” Cliffjumper said and made his way back to the hut, “do you know where the Changelings took Twilight and the others?”

Zecora thought for a moment and reached into her saddlebag. She pulled out a large colorful leaf and tore it up. With the scraps of the leaf she blew them in the air and watched them float away into the darkness of the Everfree Forest. Cliffjumper followed the pieces of leaves until her voice brought his head back.

“To find your friends, it will be hard; the leaves will go for many yards. They will lead you to many places, and on your journey you’ll meet many faces. Most will be hungry to devour you, unless you escape with your crew. You may meet monsters such as the dreaded Hydra or several Diamond Dogs, but where you truly must go is Froggy Bottom Bog!”

Zecora disappeared behind her door leaving a very confused Autobot alone. Cliffjumper stood back as Jazz began to talk through the comms link.

“Uhhh, Cliff, what was that all about?”

“I have no idea,” Cliffjumper said and suddenly remembered what the zebra had told him. “Okay, we gotta find this place called ‘Froggy Bottom Bog’….okay…okay let’s do this.”

Jazz answered, “Froggy Bottom what?”

Cliffjumper shrugged and made his way away from Zecora’s hut and into the darkness. “I guess we have to just have to…” Suddenly, several leaves flew past his view and even deeper into the darkness, “follow the leaves!”

Cliffjumper sprinted forward in hopes of catching the leaves. His footsteps became harder and harder with each heavy step on the ground. He heard the trees ruffling constantly as Jazz quickly shouted through the comms link, “Cliff, slow down, man!”

Cliffjumper pushed the wet leaves out of his face and shouted, “I’m not slowing down! Hurry it up, Sir Rust-A-Lot!”

Jazz answered, this time he sounded angry. “Hey show some respect!”

Cliffjumper chuckled, “What I said ‘Sir’?”

It wasn’t long before Cliffjumper’s hard footsteps began to sound squishy. The darkness of the Forest started to get brighter and strangely…browner. The leaves in Cliffjumper’s vision had reached its destination…a large area filled with many croaking frogs and flying insects. Trees hung low as did the vines and the bubbling creeks gave several popping sounds before more frogs jumped inside of the water.

“Whoa…I guess this is Froggy Bottom Bog huh?” Cliffjumper asked no one in particular. He was hoping Jazz would answer but all he received on the other line was static. “Jazz, you there? Huh, signal cut off.”

Cliffjumper slowly made his way into the swamp, his feet squished in the deep mud but he easily made it through. Most ponies would be stuck in the mud because of their small bodies and weak strength, but an Autobot could easily make it through this.

Several insects flew past his view; Cliffjumper swatted them away in disgust. He always hated bugs, even back on Cybertron. Those Insecticons were scary little buggers. They were even strong enough to take down Grimlock and his team!

A deep growl caused Cliffjumper to shudder. He turned around and saw nothing behind him, nothing but rain hitting the water and the wind blowing the trees. He quickly pressed his comms link and asked, “Jazz, are you there? Am I going the right direction?”

Nothing.

Cliffjumper shrugged and continued to walk straight, the swamp was getting denser with each step and it didn’t look like there was a way out anywhere. The burbling of the creek began to grow louder but Cliffjumper had to ignore it and focus on the mission.

Rarity meant so much to him, and if those dirty little Changelings put a hoof on her….they were going to need a repair sentry when he was done with them. But before he could take another step and to his great surprise, Jazz’s voice came back into the comms link.

“Cliffjumper! Get outta there, man!”

Cliffjumper pressed his link and asked, “What? What’s goin’ on!?”

The sound of water rushing caught the Autobots’ attention. He slowly turned around to see long orange towers rising from the water with several insects still stuck to its outer walls. It continued to rise until two other towers rose with the others. Cliffjumper stared in awe and confusion at these massive structures surrounding him.

He soon found out they weren’t structures when the four heads glared down at him.

“What the frack is that?!” Cliffjumper screamed and ran away when the heads started to bite at him. Each of them roared to the clouds and began to rise from the swamp. Cliffjumper took this time to truly see this thing.

It did indeed have four heads when at first he thought it would be four different monsters, it had no arms but had two massive legs that stomped forward at the red Autobot. In panic, Cliffjumper whipped out his subsonic repeater and fire random shots at the beast. It did absolutely nothing.

Jazz’s voice brought Cliffjumper back to reality. “Cliff, it’s no use, man, get outta there!”

“I hate it when you’re right!” Cliffjumper yelled before transforming and driving away from the massive beast. The creature roared in anger and chased down the Autobot. Cliffjumper couldn’t even see five feet in front of him, so he did ram into a few rocks and trees on the way.

Cliffjumper screamed when his tire clipped a sharp rock causing his car form to spin around and face the giant. It got closer with each step as its heads began to open, showing all the razor sharp teeth each mouth had.

“Jazz, what is that thing?!” Cliffjumper yelled while firing away with his machine gun that only bounced off the creature’s hard skin.

Jazz answered immediately. “It’s a Hydra! Twilight told us all about those when we first came to this world, remember?!” Cliffjumper did remember. When they had first met the ponies, Twilight had told them all about their planet’s history and animals alike, including this Hydra.

Before Cliffjumper could drive off again, Jazz began to speak. “Cliffjumper, there’s a hill at the end of bog! I’m at the top of it, so you’d better hurry up!”

“Got it!” Cliffjumper yelled and activated his nitro boosters. The Hydro roared in anger when he saw his dinner driving away. Cliffjumper’s wheels soon weren’t running over water but on wet grass. He went even faster when he felt himself going uphill.

It wasn’t long before he saw Jazz waving to him at the end of the hill, and what remained was a deep cliff with several large mountains in the back ground. Cliffjumper hit the brakes and transformed into robot mode where he met Jazz at the edge.

“Good to see you’re still functioning, Cliff,” Jazz commented while looking over the ledge, he lifted up his head where his blue visor met the mountains. He pointed at them and shouted, “Cliff, over those mountains is where Optimus said the Badlands are.”

“Well then let’s go! That Hydra’s getting closer you know!” Cliffjumper shouted and prepared to jump off the ledge, only to be stopped by Jazz.

“Hold up,” Jazz said, “I should go first, I have a grappling hook and could probably grab you in case you fall too far.” Cliffjumper gave him an angry glare.

“What? No! They don’t call me ‘Cliffjumper’ for nothin’!” Cliffjumper pointed out his own name to the reference of jumping over a ledge. He jabbed Jazz in the chest and said, “YOU go last! I’m goin’ first!”

Jazz chuckled and let gravity do the work. “Later! HAHA!!!” He fell off the cliff while his fellow Autobot stared down.

“That’s cheating!” Cliffjumper shouted. His anger was soon extinguished when the growling had come. Turning around, Cliffjumper gasped and jumped off the ledge of the cliff while the Hydra slammed his jaws where Cliffjumper was just standing.

Cliffjumper never saw that Hydra again.

Both Jazz and Cliffjumper had arrived. They had travelled across Rough Rider Ridge by vehicle; they had climbed the mighty mountains until they had reached a massive desert that looked as if it spread for miles.

Jazz and Cliffjumper nodded to each other.

“Race ya there?”

“You bet!”

Jazz twirled up his legs and Cliffjumper leaped in mid-air as both Autobots transformed into their vehicle modes. They sped off with a large trail of dust following behind them. Jazz was merely a few feet ahead when Cliffjumper finally caught up.

They were neck and neck when both Autobots decided to stop racing and just get there. Several hours past, the storm clouds were gone and only resided in the Everfree Forest now, the two Autobots drove in the moonlight through this massive desert when Cliffjumper decided to break the silence.

“So…who was it that captured Twilight and the others? I mean I know the Changelings did but…who’s their leader?” Cliffjumper asked as the dirt trail behind him grew bigger.

Jazz slowed down so Cliffjumper could catch up to him. He thought for a while before saying, “Well…Optimus told me her name was uhhh….Queen…Chrysalis…or something whatever.”

Cliffjumper managed to laugh. “That’s terrible.”

“Oh yeah?” Jazz asked.

“Yeah,” Cliffjumper had to yell over his engine, “I mean…after we save Rarity, I’m gonna punch that son of a rust bucket right where it hurts!"

“You really care for Rarity, huh Cliff?” Jazz asked with his voice soft.

“She means a lot to me, man,” Cliffjumper said quietly, “Just like you and Pinkie Pie.”

Jazz chuckled and said, “Yeah I guess you could say that. But remember, we’re not saving Twilight and the others, that’s Grimlock’s job!”

“Grimlock sure was mad when he realized Rainbow Dash was taken. He’s gonna squash some bugs in there like there’s no tomorrow!” Cliffjumper yelled over his engine.

Jazz drove faster while Cliffjumper struggled to catch up. Jazz shouted, “You’re giving him too much credit! Grimlock’s a hothead!”

Cliffjumper grunted when his tire ran over a cactus, “I just respect the direct approach that’s all.” Jazz gave a chuckle and didn’t respond back. Cliffjumper caught the hint and stayed quiet the rest of the ride.

It was a VERY long ride before the two of them finally arrived to the mountains that separated the Mild West from the Badlands. Jazz came across the large mountain side and used his grappling hook to swing across the top of the rock ledge.

“Be careful, Jazz!” Cliffjumper shouted and walked closer to the mountain.

“It’s fine!” Jazz shouted and looked around the rock for a way through on the other side. Suddenly, the rock began to crack. Jazz didn’t panic but Cliffjumper did. While Jazz used his grappling hook to cling himself to the side of the mountain, Cliffjumper ran away while the boulders nearly missed him.

Jazz chuckled, “Ya see? Under control, baby!”

Cliffjumper grunted and climbed over the rocks, “I can’t believe you outrank me.”

Jazz helped up Cliffjumper and the two Autobots made their way through the mountains and eventually on the other side. They both slid down the steep slopes until they reached solid ground yet again. But something was odd about this place.

“Cliffjumper, look,” Jazz muttered and pointed forward. Cliffjumper saw it…he saw everything.

This was probably the most heartbreaking land Cliffjumper had ever laid optics on. There were dead trees lying everywhere while the dead grass covered the massive plains. Several mountains lay in the distance while massive rocks were sprawled across the land.

“This place is even worse than Cybertron.” Cliffjumper commented and followed Jazz through the dead grass.

Jazz chuckled and ducked underneath a fallen tree. “Yeah and this place is still alive!”

“Ya sure about that?” Cliffjumper quietly asked as his hand brushed the skull of a gigantic dragon. This massive skeleton lay across the plains with several bones lying around. It only made Cliffjumper’s fears of Rarity grow bigger. If something happened to her…or any of them…

“Cliffjumper, follow me and be quiet!” Jazz whispered sharply and his behind a giant rock. Cliffjumper did the same and watched as Jazz lifted his head over the rock to see three flying Changelings soar over them and enter a monstrous cave.

Jazz and Cliffjumper got up from the rock and observed this cave even more. It was dark and the outside had to be as big as the mountain they had to climb. Jazz leaned in and heard the sound of screeching and hissing coming from inside. Jazz backed away and gulped.

“I think we just found the Changeling Hives.”

He turned to Cliffjumper and nodded. Cliffjumper nodded back and asked, “Grimlock?”

Jazz sighed and faced the entrance of the cave. He knew they couldn’t make it out of this place alive…but maybe someone else can. Facing Cliffjumper again, Jazz nodded.