Transformers: Harmony
Chapter 4
By: Megatron_91
As Celestia’s golden sun began to take its final steps across the fleeting red and orange sky, it beat its last rays of harsh heat down upon the rolling fields of Sweet Apple Acres, illuminating the land below with sunset light and unbearable heat to match. When she was a little filly, Applejack loved to come outside during this time of day and play with her brother, Big Macintosh. But now, the knotted grassy hills she called home, seemed to stretch on for an eternity as she struggled to continue onward. She stopped briefly to wipe the sweat from her muzzle and readjust the sleeping unicorn on her back.
Grunting in pain, Applejack fought hard as she put one hoof in front of the other; not even an earth pony of her strength could go on forever before tiring out, and she was beginning to feel Twilight’s weight bearing down on her aching back. Not that it upset her; she knew she was just helping out a friend who had helped her immensely throughout the day’s harvesting.
“Applejack, you doing okay?” Rainbow Dash asked as she flew up ahead, looking her orange-coated friend in the emerald colored eye. “You’re starting to look tired,” she observed, a hint of concern filling her voice. “Do you want to stop for a sec, or maybe let Fluttershy and I carry her the rest of the way?”
“No,” Applejack grunted, beginning to push forward again, moving past her rainbow-maned friend. “I’ve got this- we’re almost there,” she explained, huffing a bit as she spoke. “Just over that next hill.” The earth pony lifted a hoof and pointed towards an identical green hill sitting not too far in front of them.
Suddenly, just as quickly as she’d started, Applejack had to stop her trek again as she felt movement and shuffling on her back. Twilight was beginning to stir.
“A-Applejack?” Twilight asked, waking up and groggily looking around the grassy green fields. “You don’t need to do this anymore; I think I can walk the rest of the way,” she stated, wiping the sleep out of her eyes as she attempted to lower herself from the apple-bucking pony’s back.
“Are you sure, Twi?” she asked, bending down slightly so Twilight could stand on her legs. She noticed the lavender unicorn wobble slightly and grab her head whilst wincing in pain.
“Yeah…yeah, I’ll be fine,” she reassured her friend, breathing a little heavily. “I’m just a little tired, and I’ve got a headache, but the nausea is gone,” she explained.
“Well, if you’re sure,” Applejack said, with a look of apprehension on her face. “My house is just up ahead, but if you start to feel tired again, just let us know, okay?” she asked, gesturing to their surrounding friends, who were nodding in agreement. In fact, Fluttershy and Rarity had already moved beside the tired mare to help her in case something happened.
The group of tired ponies slowly made their way up and over the curving hill, watching as Applejack’s farmhouse, silhouetted against the sunset in the distance, came into view. It was only a couple dozen of yards away now; its large, wooden frame looked both warm and inviting to the exhausted friends. They could see the small wind vane mounted on the roof wheeling around as it was blown by the light breezes passing by the homestead and wished they could be up there, catching the cool breezes as they blew by.
But, as the six of them slowly continued towards the two story structure Applejack called home, they began to notice something a little out of the ordinary; an earth pony hauling an iron wagon was standing and waiting at the front door of the house. He appeared to be yellow in color with a short black mane. His carriage almost matched him in color with the bright yellow paint being accented by a long black stripe running down the side.
“Oh, what is this?” Applejack muttered to herself in annoyance as she and the rest of her friends moved towards the stranger and her house. “Is there somethin’ I can help you with, sir?” she asked, drawing the stallion’s attention away from the door and towards her.
The blue-eyed earth pony turned around to face the mare he was speaking to. “Um, yes, I was wondering if you were the owner of this farm.”
“Indeed I am, sir; the name’s Applejack,” she explained, stretching out her leg to shake hooves with the mysterious stranger. “These are my friends, Fluttershy, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie,” she clarified, pointing out the other members in their little group to the strange yellow pony.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all. I’m Bumblebee,” the stranger explained, returning the gesture as all around him the group of assembled mares gave him their hellos and greetings.
“Well, Bumblebee,” Applejack said, her voice taking on a more serious, business-like tone. “What can I do for you today? If you’re lookin’ for work, we can use all the help we can get with this season’s harvest.”
“No, I’m sorry to say that I’m not looking for work at the moment.” Bumblebee frowned slightly as he saw Applejack’s face fall with a disappointed look. “I’m actually with Princess Celestia’s Royal Guard,” he explained, shaking off any concern he had for the farm pony and getting back to business.
Twilight suddenly stepped forward, giving him a quizzical look from her place next to Fluttershy. “My older brother was Captain of the Royal Guard for years and I never remember him mentioning you.”
“Er…well, yes…” Bumblebee stammered, surprised to be so easily caught in his lie; he desperately searched for a recovery. “I…uh… joined up after your brother left to live with his wife in the Crystal Empire!” he exclaimed, grinning whilst sighing in relief on the inside. He noticed Twilight was still giving him a strange look.
“But, I must say, noticing I wasn’t under your brother’s command? You must be very smart Miss Twilight,” he stated, flashing the lavender mare a cocky smile and causing her to look away, slightly flustered.
“Anyways,” Applejack began, drawing Bumblebee’s attention back to her. “What can I do for ya then?” she asked, repeating her earlier question. She too was beginning to get a little suspicious of the stallion’s behavior.
“Oh, yes!” Bumblebee cried, looking around the group as he did so. “I’ve been on patrol around the area lately and I was wondering if any of you had seen anything strange.”
“No, we ain’t seen anythin’ lately,” Applejack stated, lying to the yellow earth pony. She knew she was the Element of Honesty, but she’d be darned if she told this stallion anything. He just showed up out of the blue on her door step, claiming to be part of the royal guard and every red light in Applejack’s mind was flashing a warning on high alert.
Pinkie started hopping up and down as she remembered the strange vehicle they had just seen flying around Sweet Apple Acres about an hour ago. “Well, what about that weird whirly-bird thingy?”
Rainbow Dash nervously laughed, desperately trying to use her eyes to signal Pinkie and tell her to shut up. The cyan flyer had picked up on what her usually honest friend was doing and was trying to help keep the information from the strange yellow stallion. She didn’t trust him either.
Bumblebee happily stepped closer to the pink party pony. “Please Miss Pie, tell me everything you saw,” he asked, flashing another smile at her.
“Well, I didn’t really see it up close,” she began, lifting her hooves into the air and spinning them around as Bumblebee watched. “It was waaaay up above us flying around in little circles. It kind of looked like it was looking for something,” she explained as she lowered her hooves back down to the ground and stared at the black-haired stallion.
“Please, Miss Pie,” Bumblebee sheepishly grinned, all around him the other mares were giving him strange, untrusting looks. “Could you go into a little more detail?”
“Oh, okay!” Pinkie smiled, happy to be helping a friend. “You see, it kind of looked like this weird spinney top thing I made once when Rainbow Dash’s mean friend Gilda was visiting an-OH LOOK THERE IT IS!!!” Pinkie suddenly shouted, thrusting her hoof into the sky.
“WHAT!?” Bumblebee shouted in alarm, spinning around to find the iron-clad, dual-propeller, steampunk helicopter screaming down through the sunset sky towards them; its weapon was drawn and charging.
“LOOK OUT!” Bumblebee roared, watching in horror as the bolt of blood-red, plasma burst out from the barrel of the Decepticon’s weapon and began rocketing down towards the ground below.
Thinking fast, and running out of time, Bumblebee hastily activated the booster rockets hidden in his undercarriage, bringing the iron vehicle swinging around in a massive arc and knocking the six mares surrounding them out of the way. Suddenly, before Bumblebee had a chance to move himself, his entire world exploded with fire and erupting earth.
………..
Twilight screamed out in panic as she suddenly went flying backwards, the force of the massive fiery explosion knocking her into a nearby barrel. Landing upside-down, she slammed her head into the hard dirt ground, instantly causing her to grab her forehead in pain.
Clambering to her feet, the violet unicorn desperately tried to regain control of her scrambled senses; she could feel the burning nausea rising up again as she spun her head looking around the immediate area for any signs of her friends, praying that they hadn’t been hurt by the explosion or whatever caused it. As the ringing in her ears died down and her vision began to clear, Twilight slowly came to the realization that there was another sound nearby. Spinning around, the mare almost screamed in shock to find the massive flying vehicle only inches above the ground and a only few feet from her, its propellers chopping through the air like a knife through butter, making the sound she had heard. Suddenly, the entire vehicle began to explode.
Twilight watched in horror and awe as the strange vehicle began to dismantle into thousands of dark metal pieces, each one combining and recombining with others to form a new shape or silhouette. The bottom of the craft began ripping itself apart, spinning around and unfolding as a pair of large, silver, spiked feet emerged and crashed down onto the dirt surface of the farmland. Farther up on the body, the entire remainder of the vehicle began spinning as the cockpit arose and folded in on itself as the glass window moved up and split apart and to form the sides where the creature’s chest might be. The entire tail of the aircraft soon followed, rising up to sit on the being’s back while the two wings suddenly broke and folded down each one flipping and rounding in on themselves as the propellers moved to the side, revealing a large hand with razor-sharp claws underneath. Finally a large, rounded head emerged from within the divided cockpit to stare at Twilight with glowing, blood-red eyes before it started laughing.
“Well, what have we here?” the giant asked, his voice ominously booming as he lowered one of his bright blue arms and outstretched his massive clawed hand. “Looks like I’ve found a prize,” he grimaced, swiping his claws at the smaller pony, only for her to quickly dodge out of the way.
Twilight was a smart unicorn- even a sophisticated one, some might say- and if there was one thing she believed, one thing she spent all her time studying, it was the advancement of ponykind; whether it be through the advancements of magic or science, she didn’t care, but she knew that even the most advanced races had to give into instinct sometimes. She ran. Galloping as fast as her tired legs could carry her away from the titanic metal predator. She dared not look back as she wildly ran forward, not sure of where to go. Her mind was completely running on instinct. Behind her, she could hear the enemy snickering, his laugh bellowing up into the setting sky.
“A chase, is it?” the massive metal being queried, eyeing the unicorn with his optics as he stepped forward. Instantly, he closed half the distance between him and his fleeing target. “This should be fun,” he rumbled, smiling.
As she ran, Twilight could hear and feel the massive footfalls behind her; every time one of the giant’s feet would make contact with the earth, she lifted off the ground and was forced into the air a little bit. Her eyes closed tightly, she continued running blindly forward, her legs burning from the strain as they desperately tried to keep her aloft. She could feel the intense heat in her mouth, closing her throat and making it difficult for her to breathe or scream. Her heart skipped a beat as another foot came crashing down, this one so close she swore she brushed past metal. Suddenly, Twilight felt something grab her from the side and pull her behind the nearby barn and out of the way just as another footfall slammed into the ground.
“Twilight, are you ok!?” a familiar voice rang out.
“P-Pinkie?” Twilight asked slowly opening her eyes to see the pink party-pony standing in front of her, a look of wild concern on her face. Before she knew what she was doing, Twilight threw her arms around the pink earth pony’s neck, wrapping her in a hug. Never before had the violet mare been happier to see one of her friends.
Pinkie chuckled nervously. “Gee, Twilight, I’m glad you’re not hurt like the rest of us,” she said, causing the purple haired unicorn to look up from her place buried in Pinkie’s neck and realize that all her friends were surrounding her. Just as the premier party pony had said, none of them had any visible damage after the earlier explosion.
“How cute,” the booming, threatening voice sounded, pulling Twilight back into reality as she spun around to see the iron titan peering over the roof of the large red barn house they were hiding behind. His clawed hand dug into the corner of the wooden structure as he rounded stepped around the building, coming into full view and looking down at the assembled Equestrians. “Looks like I found the whole set!” he exclaimed. He laughed as a series of small metal panel on his shoulder folded away, allowing a large, black cannon to emerge and take aim at the ponies.
Seeing her friends in danger, Twilight suddenly found herself with a second wind of energy. Quickly jumping in front of the group of ponies, she positioned herself in between them and the charging weapon. The lavender mare stamped her feet into the ground, ready to defend her friends in spite of her weakened state. If she was the leader of the Elements of Harmony, then she was going to protect her friends’ lives at any cost.
“Twilight, what the hay are you doing!?” Applejack yelled, cursing as she watched the violet unicorn attempting to stare down the metal monster.
Fighting back her headache, the waves of nausea racking her body, and the overwhelming feeling of exhaustion that was creeping into her mind, the determined unicorn continued to stand her ground, observing the iron giant, waiting for him to fire.
“Oh, please,” Incinerator sighed, releasing a bolt of energy from his shoulder-mounted concussion cannon and directed towards the severely weakened mare.
As she watched the bolt of energy leave the barrel and head straight for them in slow-motion, Twilight began to focus, gathering every ounce of strength her tired body had to offer and igniting the horn on her head. Instantly, a bubble-like shield of energy burst forth from the horn, surrounding the six friends with its protective barrier. But, much to Twilight’s horror, like a bat smashing through a glass vase, the second the beam of energy slammed into the shield, she saw it begin to splinter and fragment as it attempted to absorb the force of the blow.
Within seconds the shield exploded, sending fragments of the glass-like magical projection in every direction and forcing the out-of-control, excess energy to backlash into Twilight’s horn. The young mare screamed in pain as the energy surged back into her body, sending it flying backwards and slamming against the hard wood wall of the Apple Family’s barn.
“TWILIGHT!!” Rainbow Dash yelled in alarm, watching as her unicorn friend slammed into the barn and slumped to the ground.
“Too easy,” the enormous monster chided as he took a step closer to the remaining Equestrians.
From her place on the ground, Twilight desperately struggled to lift herself back up, but her tired, defeated body was fighting against her. She could see the looming titan slowly approaching her friends, the weapon on its shoulder beginning to charge again as a sadistic look crossed its face. She had to get up; she had to save her friends; it was her responsibility as the leader; she couldn’t just lay here and let them die. She could feel tears beginning to well in her eyes as she realized the hopelessness of the situation.
Suddenly a flash of yellow and black caught the corner of Twilight’s eye. As she turned to face the sudden burst of colors, she was surprised to see Bumblebee charging towards her friends and the metal giant. The bright yellow stallion was moving at a seemingly impossible pace; his wagon, trailing behind him, almost looked like a blur. As he passed by her, she could see the look of rage and determination on his face.
Watching in awe, Twilight was shocked when, in a flash of bright, white light, Bumblebee disappeared into thin air, leaving behind his empty cart to roll towards the giant at an extremely rapid pace. Much to Twilight’s horror, however, as the cart drew closer to the iron titan, it began undergoing the same process the monster had earlier. The yellow-and-black vehicle began splitting into several separate pieces of metal and wood, each part rearranging itself into a different configuration and shape. A pair of arms emerged from beneath the transforming wagon and slammed themselves onto the ground, propelling the whole vehicle skywards where it finished its alteration.
Sailing through the air, Bumblebee, now in robot mode, delivered a resounding punch to Incinerator’s head, before falling back to the ground where, like an acrobat on the stage, he grabbed hold of the Decepticon’s failing arm and used it to swing himself up onto his opponent’s shoulder. Moving as swiftly and delicately as his insect namesake, the yellow Autobot somersaulted over Incinerator’s head and delivered a flying kick, knocking the Decepticon’s shoulder mounted weapon to the ground below.
“If you’ve got a safer place to be, you might want to get to it!!” Bumblebee yelled down to the assembled ponies, trying to warn them of the immediate danger. “I’m not gonna be able to hold him off for long!” he shouted before being muffled as his head disappeared into Incinerator’s hand. The towering Decepticon had grabbed hold of him, ripped him from his shoulder, and flung the young Autobot back onto the ground.
“Come on, y’all,” Applejack yelled, watching as the smaller, yellow giant slammed into the ground. “Let’s move! We’ve gotta get Twi and get out of here!!” she ordered, running up to the injured unicorn and once more lifting her up onto her back.
“But, Applejack,” Twilight weakly protested, wincing as Rainbow Dash wrapped her hooves around her stomach and helped her up onto the earth pony’s back. “What about the farm?” she asked, looking over her friend’s shoulder at the two titans duking it out in front of the earth pony’s house. Bumblebee had just dodged a swiping blow from the larger monster that cut down a nearby tree.
“My farm ain’t more important than my friends’ lives, Twilight,” Applejack gently explained as she began galloping towards the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres, the injured unicorn barely hanging onto her back.
“Well, what do we do now!?” Fluttershy screamed, the panic in her voice overtaking her usually quiet disposition. She flew up alongside Applejack and looked her in the eye while placing a hoof on Twilight’s back to help the struggling unicorn stay aboard. “We need to tell somepony about this; maybe we should send a letter to the Princess,” she suggested.
“Oh, yeah, I’m sure that’ll work,” Rainbow Dash sarcastically remarked, rolling her eyes in disbelief. “Uh, Princess? We need your help…there are these giant robots attacking Applejack’s house!” she cried out, cynically mocking the possible letter to the princess.
“Well we have to do something!” Rarity stated, shooting Rainbow Dash a dirty look for mocking Fluttershy’s suggestion. “We can’t just let them destroy Applejack’s farm!”
“My farm is fine!! What’s more important is everyone’s safety, understand?” she asked, reasserting her earlier position. “So, the first thing we’re gonna do is get Twilight home, so she can rest; then we’ll figure out what to do about the robots and my farm.” Applejack ordered as the other members of the mane six followed her off of Sweet Apple Acre’s property and down into the little town below.
………..
Sailing through the twilight sky, Bumblebee slammed into the ground for the umpteenth time as Incinerator kicked him across the open field outside the farm’s main house. Lifting himself up onto his forearms, Bumblebee watched as Incinerator began running towards him, arms raised to attack. The Autobot scout quickly jumped to his feet transformed his arm, and brought his battle pistol to bear, opening fire on the approaching Decepticon.
The brutish warrior laughed, continuing to charge forward as the Autobot’s shots pinged off his armor. The propellers on his arms began spinning rapidly, transforming themselves into a pair of makeshift saw blades that he swung towards the defenseless little Autobot.
“Geez!! How many of you guys have those things!?” Bumblebee questioned, recalling his earlier encounter with Barricade. He yellow Autobot quickly leaned back and used his arms for support as he dodged the massive arm and the spinning blade attached to it. But before the younger Autobot could recover from his impressive maneuver, Incinerator brought his other arm down, delivering a powerful hammer strike to Bumblebee’s torso and driving him to the ground.
Bumblebee shouted in pain as Incinerator brought the full weight of his foot crashing down on the smaller Autobots body, pinning him to the dusty ground. As the much smaller Autobot struggled to move, he looked up at the towering Decepticon, only to find a sadistic grimace on his opponent’s face.
“Sorry to have to do this to ya, kid,” he growled, reaching into the tail assembly on his back and pulling out a large rifle. “But old Starscream’s given me orders to take you offline…something about killing Oil Slick.” He cocked the weapon before pushing the barrel up against Bumlebee’s rounded head.
“I had a feeling that would come back to bite me,” Bumblebee sighed, wincing as he waited for the fatal shot to be fired.
“Hey, now, I don’t think I can let you do that; that guy owes me some money!” an unexpected voice sounded from behind Incinerator, drawing the giant’s attention away from Bumblebee and towards the source of the noise. As he spun around searching for the speaker, the large Decepticon suddenly felt a weight leap onto his back and begin crawling towards his head.
The Decepticon hunter bellowed in surprise, swatting at a small, silver Autobot with a slightly rounded helmet and black arms that had appeared on his shoulder.
“Hey, there!” Bluestreak shouted, easily jumping over the Decepticon’s fist as he took another swat at him, missing and smashing the armor on his shoulder. “Watch where you swing that thing- you might hit something important,” he joked, ducking as the large metal hand passed by again.
“It’s about time you showed up; I was about to get my head blown off!” Bumblebee shouted up to his friend while struggling to get out from underneath the Decepticon foot that had him stuck to the earth.
“Oh, calm down, you knew I’d save your aft,” Bluestreak nonchalantly stated, briefly leaning against one of the large metal pylons on the Decepticon’s shoulder as the brute continued to try and shake the agile Autobot off. “HEY, THIS LOOKS IMPORTANT!” the Autobot spy suddenly shouted, plunging his fist into the mess of wires connecting the Decepticon’s neck to his torso and pulling out a long winding hose. Energon and steam quickly began sputtering out of the torn end.
Incinerator screamed in pain, bringing both his hands up to apply pressure to his damaged and leaking neck. As he struggled to hold the wound on his neck and knock off his stealthy attacker, he accidentally released his foothold on Bumblebee, allowing the Autobot scout to slip free and resume firing at the injured Decepticon.
Moving quickly so as to join his companion on the ground, Bluestreak leapt high into the air, using his wheeled legs to repel himself off the massive Decepticon by kicking him in the face. As he hit the ground, he quickly transformed his arms into a pair of dual blasters and joined Bumblebee in opening fire on the wounded ’Con, chipping off bits of armor and shattering the glass windows built into his chest.
“Frag this!!” Incinerator roared, releasing one of his arms from the wound on his neck so he could block the incoming laser fire. “If Starscream wants you dead this bad he can come and do it himself!” The Decepticon bellowed, transforming back into his assault chopper mode and taking off into the sky, putting as much distance between him and the two smaller Autobots as possible.
“That was way too close,” Bumblebee sighed, shifting his arm back into its natural form as he looked around the makeshift battlefield. Fortunately most of the collateral damage had been contained. The main house and barn appeared to still be standing and the only damage the scout could see was a few snapped trees in the front yard.
“Yeah, no kidding,” Bluestreak replied, pulling Bumblebee’s attention back to him. “You almost got your fragging head blown off!” he barked; the angry expression on his face matching the tone of his voice.
“Oh, come on!” Bumblebee complained. “You know I would have been fine; you’re always there to pull my aft out when I get in too deep,” he explained, flashing his friend one of his cocky grins and lifting his arm for a high-five.
Bluestreak sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in between his two yellow optics. “Let’s just get back to base and report this to Optimus,” he suggested, transforming back into vehicle mode and flashing in his pony-avatar before taking off for the farm’s main entrance.
“Really!?” Bumblebee shouted after his friend. “You’re just gonna leave me hanging?” he asked, pointing to his still outstretched right arm.
“Move it, or lose it, Bee!!” Bluestreak shouted back to him from up ahead.
“Ugh…fine,” Bumblebee grunted, transforming back into vehicle mode himself and running off to catch up with his friend.