Twilight delicately stepped through the GroundBridge into the Outpost. Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee all aimed their blasters at her, remembering how well her last trip had ended.

Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were waiting for her at the Autobots' feet.

Applejack brought her hat over her chest and smiled at her. "Mighty appreciated of ya, Twi'..." Applejack's expression became somber. "But we're not the ones y'all need to be apologizin' to."

Rarity stepped forward and lead Twilight deeper into the base. it's daunting, Autobot-sized halls and doors made Twilight feel like she was about to be brought against the jury for her final verdict.

After some twists and turns, the two unicorns entered the med-bay, where Ratchet was monitoring Optimus Prime's life signs.

Irregularly shaped black steel plates with glowing runic blues were affixed to various parts of Optimus Prime's body, one over his lost optic, one over much, but not all of his chest/rib area, and one on each of his arms, pinning them to the bed. Similar, but different black circular plates were affixed to his leg, holding it together like some sort of Cybertronian version of stitches. Frigid air leaked off the tanks of coolant meant to keep him from melting.

"I'm so sorry." Twilight apologized, even though she knew Optimus Prime couldn't hear her. "This isn't what I meant to happen..."

Ratchet was skeptical at this. "Oh? And what, Twilight Sparkle, did you mean to happen?"

Twilight walked closer to Optimus and put her head on his legs, nuzzling it apologetically. Pink, Dark Energon-tainted tears leaked from her eyes and onto Optimus' cobalt.

Rarity, all too familiar with Optimus' zero-tolerance policy on the stuff, skipped over and levitated a wipe to clean the tears off. She left the wipe on his leg so that Twilight's crying would fall on it instead of him.

"Optimus..." Twilight squeaked. "If there's anything I can do to make it up to you..."

HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON JULY 1969, A.D. WE CAME IN PEACE

-FOR ALL MANKIND:

THE HANGING SWORD

The crisp chill of the night air wrapped around the Autobot base. Even with it's insulation, the low temperatures could be felt easily. Perhaps because the base had a draft somewhere.

"Come on, Miko." Bulkhead chided in his deep, baritone voice. "You know you can't sleep here."

"My host parents worry when I'm home for too long..." Miko mumbled under her breath. "Can I talk to Rarity about something first?"

Miko gave a salute. "It won't even take that long, boss!" she scampered off into the halls where Rarity and the other ponies were trotting towards their pens, which the Autobots were so kind as to hastily slap together.

Rarity assured the others she'd be right with them, motioning for them to go on, and turned around. "Yes, Miko?"

Miko kicked her leg backwards. She seemed somewhat anxious about what she was going to say. "Well...I'm a Wrecker now, right?"

"Soooo..." Miko twiddled her fingers together. "Does that make us sisters or something?"

Rarity was visibly taken aback by Miko's question. She looked around, trying to find an answer she deemed suitable. After a moment to consider it very carefully, Rarity took Miko's hand into her hoof and patted it. It made Miko feel kinda patronized.

"Oop!" Miko exclaimed. "Gotta go." She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb. "Our boyfriend's getting impatient."

Rarity went into the room where her friends were waiting for, laying on beds made of hay. Applejack looked real depressed about sumthin'.

"Applejack?" Rarity asked sweetly as she used her tail to pull the door to her den closed. "What's wrong, dear?"

Applejack signed heavily. Very heavily, like there was weight equivalent to Bulkhead on her shoulders. "Ah heard ya talking to Miko jus' now, Rarity, and Ah...It made me sad."

"Why did hearing Miko and Rarity talk make you sad, Applejack?" Fluttershy questioned.

"C'os she said sumthun 'bout being sisters..." Applejack answered. "And that got me thinkin'...when was the last time Ah saw mah sister?"

Pinkie raised her hoof to answer...but stopped and put it back down. "I don't know..."

Everypony looked down as they were all reminded of their families and other friends all Celestia-knows-how-far-away back on Equestria.

"Apple Bloom an' Big Macintosh...Gosh, poor Granny Smith even has probably realized Ah've been gone."

"Oh, Angel..." Fluttershy looked upwards towards the ceiling, where just above the roof lied the space and stars. The stars their destination... "I wonder if he and Bob would get along?"

Applejack brought her hat over her chest, an extreme depression on her face. "What- what if time travels differently on Earth? What if Apple Bloom and the Cutie Mark Crusaders have their Cutie Marks? What if we missed them all growing up?"

"Well..." Rarity muttered, trying to take over Pinkie Pie's job of keeping the positive flowing. "I think the best thing we can do now it just pray to Celestia that we can complete our mission soon and head back home."

A forceful thump caught everypony's attention. Tracing the sound to it's source, they saw Rainbow Dash had banged her fronts hooves against the door to her pen.

That sentence...was wrong on so many levels. Celestia had sent them out in the first place because she had been concerned that some other innocent somethings-or-other were going to suffer at Discord's talons, and she had been right. But the Autobots had been able to beat him, so there was practically no point in coming to Earth...except maybe, of course, to get Twilight killed and resurrected as Terrorpony bent on spreading as much Dark Energon as possible!

In their downward-bound spirits, it was just so much easier to convince themselves Celestia had abandoned them.

Charles and Kade stood outside Cody's bedroom, fully aware of how rude it would be to barge in unannounced and wake the poor boy up...but they needed to talk to him, and soon.

"Cody!" Chief Burns yelled, busting the door wide open. "Are you up? Kade and I need to talk to you."

"It's..." Chief Burns sat down on the side of the bed, altering the leverage of the mattress and making sure Cody's attention was focused on him. "about Twilight Sparkle. Are you sure trying to be her friend is a good idea?"

Cody signed. "Well...She seems to really like me, Dad. She was also really nice when I pretended to work with her and MECH...I think she's been misled."

"Yeah. She seemed like she thought she was doing the right thing, and realized she was doing something wrong- remember when she came back to apologize for infecting Dani? She knew she did something wrong...even if what she thought she did wrong and we thought she did wrong weren't the same thing. I think, maybe, if I can be her friend, I can help set her straight about the Bots"

"What are you going to do, Cody?" Kade grilled him. "Pull her aside and have a nice heart-to-heart talk about how the Rescue Bots are the good guys?"

Cody stared at Kade blankly, like Kade's questions had sapped all of his thinking power.

Twilight wearily woke in the mayor's chair, scrunching up into it like a doughy ball.

"What?" The Terrorpony asked, unfolding herself and looking around. "Oh...I must've spent so long on the paperwork I fell asleep in the chair..." Twilight looked around to make sure it was appropriate time to be up. Hopping off her chair, she approached the windows of the city hall. Beautiful sunlight poured into the building, casting a bright glow into the building.

"Ahhh! The sun." Twilight signed in content, watching the roll of the ocean waves from the window. She turned away from the window and approached the desk, shifting through the papers.

"Hmm...hmm...what was I doing?" Twilight questioned to herself as the papers were all knocked askew by her hooves until she found the scroll with the Temporal Station specs on it.

"Oh yeah! Yes, yeees..." Twilight drawled. Reminded of her devious scheme, one that even Megatron would give two thumbs-up, she pulled out some blank scrolls and started drawing on them with a quill. When she was finished, two more pictures were on either side of the Station's specs.

Twilight, seemingly satisfied with the outcome, punched the intercom system on the desk that was now hers.

"Yes, Mayor." Mister Alper, one of Griffin Rock's non-Mayor politicians answered. "He's quite well working at Missus Nederlander's bed and breakfast."

"Excellent! I wanted to be sure he could still take care of his family before setting Griffin Rock to work on my project."

"A SPACE BRIDGE!?" Starscream exclaimed, looking on Twilight's diagram of the Harbinger's computer with Silas and Novo on the sides of his feet. "Twilight, have you even looked at your plans!?"

"Are you sure?" Starscream rasped in his deep low tone. "Because a Temporal Station, plus a GroundBridge, plus unicorn magic, divided by Dark Energon does not a Space Bridge make!"

Twilight alternated gazes between Starscream and the computer screen. She pushed her hooves on some of the buttons and altered the diagram so that instead read 'Temporal Station plus GroundBridge plus Dark Energon divided by unicorn magic.'

Starscream stared at the altered diagram with a confused expression on his face. "That...could work, actually." Starscream shook his head. "But might I offer an alternative solution?"

"Back when I was still in the Decepticons' good grace, I had already set them to work building a Space Bridge." Starscream explained. "Why experiment from scratch when we could take our Morbots and lay claim to a Bridge that's already been prepared for us?"

Twilight tapped her her hoof against her chin, contemplating Starscream's suggestion. "Are you sure, Starscream? That sounds like it'll take an awful lot of resources..."

Starscream looked downed, then pointed a finger upwards. "Ah! But it would not only provide us an invaluable asset, but deny Megatron one as well."

That seemed to sell the idea to Twilight. "All right then." Twilight teleported herself off the control panel, then to the room's exit, and furthermore until she was inside her Commandbot's controls.

Twilight's Commandbot went into the room where the Iacon Artifacts were kept, and with just the teeniest bit of hesitance, pulled the Apex Armor's disc off its pedestal and equipped it.

"Hmmm..." Twilight's Commandbot looked at the hanging hammer Morocco had acquired. She/it nervously reached out its hand as if to draw it free of its iron chains, but hesitated at the last minute.

Twilight's Commandbot turned away, to see Nemesis Prime standing in the doorway.

Twilight seemed reluctant to answer. Not wanting to make her creation worry, she grabbed her hammer and tore it off its chains, snapping them as the huge thing was removed.

She swung the hammer around, making sure she knew it's exact weight. The Morbot she was piloting probably would've been crushed by it, but the Apex Armor gave more than enough force to toss it around.

"Starscream!" Twilight shouted, ready to proceeded. "Rally the troops and pilot the Harbinger for the Space Bridge's location!"

The Harbinger quickly got headway to it's destination, heading for the Space Bridge the Autobots had used so few moons ago to restore their leader.

Aboard the Nemesis...

Megatron and Dreadwing walked into Knock Out's medical room, where the good doctor was making little progress in his studies.

"Daaargh!" The sports car Decepticon growled in frustration, the Red Energon splinters evidently not cooperating with Knock Out's latest attempt to decipher it. He noticed Megatron and Dreadwing observing him in the doorway.

"Please, doctor." Megatron noted. "Do not let stage fright prevent you from your progress."

"The Red Energon is refusing to cooperate, Lord Megatron!" Knock Out exclaimed. "I just can't solve it!"

Knock Out signed, and resigned himself to what he was finding an increasingly fruitless endeavor.

"...Lord Megatron, I believe, based on Fearstorm's report of the Red Energon having been shattered-"

Team Prime and the girls were up and about in the base. Bumblebee, in particular, seemed kinda focous on the little piece of Red Energon Optimus had removed from Rainbow Dash. He picked it up and examined it, then went into the main control room with it in hand.

Optimus looked at the Red Energon and grimaced. "You are correct, Bumblebee. The Red Energon may have been shattered and rendered useless to the humans' research, but the Decepticons have proven capable of more desperate venues. Ratchet, prepare the Bridge."

Optimus choose Bumblebee and Arcee to accompany him through the Bridge, going back to the site where the Red Energon had been founded.

Approached the edge of the crater, the Autobots found that the crater had sapped dry of Red Energon remnants.

"The Decepticons have already scavenged the excavation site." Optimus noted ruefully.

Looking up, the three of them could see Dreadwing and some aerial Vehicons behind, flying for the crater. They transformed and landed on the opposite edge of the crater.

"Prime!" Dreadwing spat. "You and your Autobots runts have scavenged the Red Energon, haven't you?"

"No, Dreadwing." Optimus answered stonily, retracting his blasters. "We presumed your team had already done so."

Dreadwing glared at him, then crouched to examine the crater. "Then it would appear Twilight Sparkle's alliance have been the ones to take it."

Dreadwing and Optimus glared at each other. They both turned around and turned to retreat back to their respective hideouts.

"Twilight Sparkle now has access to the Red Energon!? Do you realize what this could mean, Dreadwing?"

Dreadwing clenched his fist. "I believe so...it means Twilight Sparkle could achieve hypersonic speeds and utterly blindside our ranks."

"Precisely." Megatron hissed. The Decepticon Lord slammed his open palm -not his fist, strangely- against a panel. "Knock Out! Double your efforts to discern the cause of the Red Energon's genetic mutations immediately!"

"I'm working on it, Lord Megatron, but, um...do you remember our Space Bridge from a while back?"

"GRAAH!" Megatron slammed the keyboards. "Decepticons! Twilight Sparkle must not be allowed access to the Space Bridge, no matter the cost!"

The Decepticon Space Bridge- a large silver circle like a GroundBridge terminal, but larger, was stationed inside an particular large Energon mine. The lighting from the Bridge's power made the purple mine look gray.

All around were the sounds of battle as Twilight's forces clashed with Megatron's. Morbots shot Vehicons, Vehicons shot Morbots.

"Hmm!" Twilight grunted, swinging the Forge of Solus Prime to smash an Insecticon down to size. "There's a lot more security then you said there'd be, Starscream!"

"Yes..." Starscream noted, hiding in the shadow of the Apex Armor, peeping out from behind it to take potshots with his missiles. "Perhaps because of the time I had to trade information with the Autobots in exchange for services."

"Graah!" Twilight exclaimed, grabbing a Vehicon by the head and throwing him against his compadre. Seeking to better utilize her new weapon, Twilight aimed the Resonance Blaster at another Vehicon, pushing him off the Space Bridge's platform with a pink laser blast shaped a like spiral.

"Huh. I wonder if this could be altered to make a Sonic Rainboom?" Twilight wondered out loud.

After slamming the Forge into another poor Insecticon's face, Twilight planted the hammer's pole into the ground beside the control and rushed to push the buttons on it with the Apex Armor's fingers.

"Alter the trajectory...calculate orbit...annnd done!" Twilight exclaimed, pulling a lever. In the silver archway, the Space Bridge formed. It looked like a GroundBridge portal, but bigger.

Twilight's mech began approaching the Space Bridge, meaning to enter the portal and achieve the next part of her plan- whatever that was.

One of the Insecticon guards recovered and put a claw over his head. Looking up, he saw Twilight's machine headed for the Space Bridge.

With Megatron's orders ringing in its head, the Insecticon improvised, charging up the platform and headbutting Starscream away from the controls. The shriek Starscream caught Twilight's attention. The Insecticon gutted two Morbots before they could blast him away, then used the poor bots to bludgeon away the other ones.

That done, the Insecticon punched something into the controls, causing what a valve with two handles to pop out the side of the platform.

Another Insecticon, having also recovered and caught wind of his brother was doing, leaped for the valve while Twilight was distracted fighting his brother, grabbed the handles, and twisted it.

"The Space Bridge!" Starscream answered. "The Insecticons have set it to self-destruct! Funny. I didn't they were smart enough to do that."

"I think we have bigger problems!" Twilight yelled in panic. Given how the Decepticons were all transforming and making a beeline to hightail it the heck outta there, she really didn't want to be in there when the Bridge went off. The Apex Armor folded it away just enough to let her Morbot's rockets work, and she jetted off with the other Morbots and Starscream's jet mode trailing behind her.

They all barely, just...barely made it out in time. The blast wave of the explosion all threw their flight paths askew, and Twilight just barely had enough of her wits about to use the Resonance Blaster to vibrate some loose boulders to pieces before they flattened her troop.

Lowering her vehicle to the ground, Twilight examined the collapsed mine. Starscream and the Morbots lowered themselves besides her.

"It would appear that way..." Starscream noted as a flaming piece of shrapnel fell from the sky to the ground just beside his foot.

Bryce was at his desk in the base, shuffling papers, waiting for some guests to arrive.
Fowler walked into the door, and noticed there were two chairs in front of Bryce's desk. "You expecting someone besides me, General?"

"At ease, gentlemen." Bryce commanded. "You're both here about some concerning reports I've been getting regarding suspicious activity."

"Close." Bryce answered. "Gentlemen, are you familiar with the organization of COBRA?"

"Yeah!" Fowler answered. "I loved their little SSS Mart. Whatever happened to thing, anyways?"

"A group of renegades discovered it was a front for a terrorist organization." Madison told him smugly.

"Disregarding Fowler's inability to watch the news, Bryce, what about COBRA? It got disbanded when their headquarters was blown up, didn't it?"

"That's what we all thought." Bryce answered. "But it seems apparent, that despite that their heavy losses and true motives being revealed to the public, scouts say they've been spotting COBRA activity at early morning...and quite often in close proximity to where they saw MECH just over a week ago."

"Whatever the case, I want it stopped before they make a resurgence." Bryce answered. "Fowler, Madison, I want you to work together to stop them."

"Madison's Walker robots should prove useful to your mission...especially when the brave soldiers who put COBRA down the first time are behind the wheel."

At an old abandoned warehouse out in the middle of a random forest, men in black suits were gathered with Adam standing prominently in their group like a king.
Inside the warehouse were the destroyed remains of the base after the yellow Autobot had trashed it in search of his T-Cog. A gray robot that was bare and shaped like a skeleton was damaged and rested on supports.

Cables and plugs lead to the center of the room from a bunch of outlets in various parts of the building. The metal wiring all lead into operation systems not previously there.

Adam stepped into the building and disappeared into the shadows. The noise of bent cloth zipped out from it, and Adam stepped out...in a dark blackish blue garb with a cowl masking his mouth, heavy boots that gave him the impression of menace, and his MECH mask removed, showing his horribly burned red face, bald and with blue veins visible.

"Ahhh...my fellow COBRA workers!" Adam exclaimed. "Long have we toiled under the tyranny of Silas' rule, awaiting the day we had the strength to break free and restore the name of our glorious empire! And don't even get me started on that unicorn!"

The 'MECH' agents all muttered in agreement with their leader's opinion, generally expressing some discontent about how Twilight ran things.

"But no more! For now, thanks to the help of our good friend, Doctor Thaddeus Morocco..."

Morocco, clad in a white lab coat, waved at the mention of his name while keeping his eyes on the center of the room.

"We can now put the Silas' efforts to their intended use...in the culmination of Project: Discord!"

Plugged into the terminals was a huge machine with a clear glass door, showing Discord's gray body inside. Jumper cables and wire jacks were attached to the Draconequus' body everywhere, and in a very painful-looking manner. A laser barrel was at the machine's top.

"Right away, Mister DeCobray!" Morocco saluted. He felt Adam boring into the back of his neck with his eyes.

The machine swiveled on an axis and aimed at a sample of the Red Energon COBRA had sneakily stolen right out from the Cybertronian's noses.

"We're going to start small." Morroco explained. "We'll attempt to use the subject's reality-altering...ehr, magic to this Red Energon into Dark Energon."

The machine fired a yellow blast from it's spout, which hit the Red Energon dead-on and turned it into a big wad of gummy candy.

"Ehr, this can be remedied!" Morroco quickly assured him, familiar enough with Cobra Commander's attitude towards failure to be worried.

Back over at Madison's base, Fowler and Madison were waiting in front of Madison's repaired Walkers for these mysterious 'Joes', giving each other dirty glares to pass the time. At least that's what they told people. They were really giving them because they were still bitter about their encounters regarding the Autobots (whom Fowler had yet to tell Madison the full details of, despite their encounters.)

The grass bent and blew in a breeze, alerting them that the 'Joes' helicopter had arrived.

The helicopter touched down just a few feet in front of the Walkers. Lieutenant Scarlet walked out with a pair of bodyguards in two.
One was a man in an all-black full-body suit, with a gray visor over his eyes and two Japanese swords sheathed on his back in an crossed formation.

The other was a black (skinned) man in a suit equipped for espionage and a short, shaved chin.

"Or 'Renegades', if you prefer, Special Agent Fowler." Scarlett said with a salute. "These are my partners, Snakes Eyes and Ripcord."

"What's up?" Ripcord said with a hand wave. "Heard you fellas needing a taking down of COBRA Industries?"

"Right." Fowler answered. "Reports have been coming in to suggest COBRA is trying to make a comeback, and fellow terrorist organization MECH is involved somehow."

"General Bryce wants us to use my Walker machines to stomp them out." Madison pounded his fist into his palm. "So let's go stomp 'em!"

Fowler, Madison, Scarlet, Snake Eyes and Ripcord all climbed into a Walker. Helicopters overhead with giant magnets equipped to them to carry the heavy metal vehicles flew into view.

Back in the Griffin Rock City Hall, Twilight, maintaining facades, tapped on Huxley's microphone with her hoof to make sure it was working.

"Seems fine to me." Twilight concluded, taking the microphone into her magic. "Roll tape, Mister Prescott!"

"Attention, citizens of Griffin Rock! Your new mayor, Twilight Sparkle- that's me- has a total vested interest in your well-being. However, a pony can't let her concern for her fellow mare clash against her personal desires too much. That is why I am asking you, citizens, not as your mayor, but as your friend, to help me with my project. With the help of the Griffin Rock community, I intend to build a revolutionary new machine known as a Space Bridge, which tear a hole into the very fabric of outer space! Neat, right? Back to the topic, I need as many helping hooves, er, hands, to build this machine and usher in a new age of technological revolution! Please follow the signs to the abandoned cavern just under the Griffin Rock laboratory."

"I suspect as much, Mayor Sparkle!" Huxley said with a salute. "'Though I must say, can this Space Bridge really tear hole in space, as you claim?"

"As long it's built properly, yes. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some other business to attend to..."

Twilight left the city hall, exiting it's grandiose doors. She saw Cody on the other side of the road.

"Cody!" Twilight exclaimed, waving her hoof. She teleported right across the road to him, the dimensional displacement preventing a passing car from so much as touching her. "What are you up to? Did you see my broadcast about the Space Bridge?"

The two of them began walking down the concrete, stopping at a crosswalk where the lights said 'don't walk'.

Twilight got a very annoyed expression on her face. "Do we have to, Cody? I was kinda hoping we kinda build our friendship..." Twilight circled her hoof through the air. "circumventing that."

Cody shook his head. "I'm sorry, Twilight, but the Rescue Bots are just in my life too much. They're like family-...no, they are family."

Twilight smiled softly. "That's sweet, Cody...but I don't want anything to do with the Autobots, Rescue Bots or otherwise, unless I have to."

"The crosswalk's changed." Twilight said curtly. When she trotted to the other side, Cody didn't join her.

Cody shook his head. "So much for that plan..." putting his hands into his coat pockets, Cody dejectedly walked back the way he came.

Twilight continued on her trek, traveling through Griffin Rock's streets until she was outside the city and at the eponymous mountain actually called Griffin Rock.

With her gossamer wings, somehow still intact, Twilight flew into the Harbinger to report to her fellows.

"Silas! Starscream!" Twilight called, flying into the bridge room. "I've sent out a broadcast that will have the citizens of Griffin Rock helping to build the Space Bridge based on the key instructions I've left in the form of signs."

"Brilliant, Twilight!' Starscream complimented, rubbing his claws together. Oh, the things they could do with a Space Bridge once the gullible humans had completed it!

"Twilight Sparkle..." Starscream said slowly. "Once we have the Space Bridge, what do you intend to do with it?"

Twilight giggled coyly. "That's a surprise, Starscream! Hey..." Twilight's eye was drawn to the Harbinger's global monitors.

Ratchet loomed over the main control room's computers, as grumpy and surly as ever. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were lolling about the room while everypony else was off doing their own thing. Raf was in the room with his laptop.

"Rafael, I'm fixing to do a check for any energy readings that might pop up." Ratchet said. "Would you mind-"

"No problem." Raf plugged his laptop into the Autobot computer and punched in a command on the keys.

Ratchet furrowed his browplates. "Nothing here, either...once more, and we should be done."

"By the AllSpark!" Ratchet exclaimed. He pulled out a microphone from a hidden compartment on the computer. "Optimus, get everyone in here now!"

Optimus, the rest of Team Prime, Applejack, Dash, Pinkie and Rarity all rushed into the room. The sound of tromping metal alternated with the hoofsteps.

Ratchet turned and stepped aside from the computer. "You should take a look at this."

Optimus walked up to the computer while the ponies all leaned forward, on edge. Optimus put his hands on the computer.

"What?" Dash flew up to the side of Optimus' head to look at whatever was on the screen. "What is it!?"

"This signal is the same one our systems detected during Discord's brief reign here on Earth." Optimus answered.

Madison's helicopter convoy flew over a trench. A suspicious-looking trench. It's wasn't naturally, it was man-made.

The helicopters smoothly lowered themselves and ejected the Walker machines from the magnets. Fowler, Ripcord, and Scarlet 'ooffed' from the impact. Snakes and Madison seemed unaffected.

"Forwards!" Madison ordered, pointing his Walker's gun. The troupe of human-made war machines marched upwards on the side of the trench until they saw what they were looking for.

COBRA, yes, COBRA agents were gathered around, with special types of tanks called 'HISS' tanks ready and primed. One HISS tank was much larger then the others, being just big enough to barely fit into the trench, and had a huge machine on it with a pod in it mounted to it's top.

"Unbelievable!" Ripcord exclaimed. "After what those creeps did to me, they have the guts to show back up?"

Fowler was starting to wish Team Prime was with them, backing them up, but he realized he couldn't rely on the Bots for everything.

Doctor Morocco climbed into the larger HISS vehicle, while Cobra Commander went out and started rallying his troops.

Cobra Commander:
My dear soliders!
For much too long we have chafed
Under the toil of Silas and his pets
Waiting 'til we were strong!
Now we are!
Now we renter the fray!
Under the command of Adam DeCobray!
Doctor Morroco:
Crashing through the sky,
Comes a fearsome cry!
Nowhere to run,
Nowhere to hide,
Panic sprrreading far and wiiide!

Fowler scoffed at Madison's method of measuring fiendness. Jerking his shoulders, plugged into the Walker, aimed the blaster at the larger HISS tank, then stopped when he thought he saw something.

Fowler squirmed his way out of the Walkers' controls and pulled out his cell phone.

Fowler signed in relief, then shirked at the odd glares his teammates were giving him.

A GroundBridge opened on the other side of the trench. Fowler saw it as opportunity to get out his predicament.

"But I think they can say it for me." Fowler pointed to the Bridge, where humongous metal footsteps were echoing through.

...Wait, those didn't sound like Prime's footsteps. Prime's were more of a 'tromp' then a 'thoump'.

A towering gray figure with blue lines running through stepped out of the GroundBridge, with a funny shaped-gun attached to one arm and a ginormous hammer in the other hand.

"Where is Discord!?" Fowler recognized the voice of Twilight Sparkle coming out of the titan.

"Discord!" Twilight snapped, then she realized the particular humans she was talking might not know him. "Uh, big, scary dude that kinda looks a like a cross between a donkey and a serpent?"

Another GroundBridge opened, just behind the troupe of Walkers. Team Prime and Twilight's Friends stepped of that one in full force (bar Ratchet...so, not totally full force.)

"Optimus!" Twilight exclaimed, aiming the Resonance Blaster at him. "Perhaps you know where Discord is?"

"We know no more about his whereabouts than you do, Twilight Sparkle." Optimus told her. "Only that the energy signature of his magic was detected here."

"And that same 'magic' is about to be put good use on COBRA's behalf!" A shrieking voice screeched at them. Everyone turned around to see that the HISS tanks had begun to move, with Adam in a robot suit of his own that looked quite different then the Walkers or Morbots.

"COBRA?" Twilight turned to Starscream. "Isn't that the name of Adam's old organization?"

"Yes!" The burned man in the robot's cockpit yelled at them. "Yes it is! And I am Adam, but I prefer 'Cobra Commander'!"

"Adam!?" Twilight exclaimed. "Wow! I didn't recognize you with your mask off. What happened to your face!?"

"That is of no importance." Adam growled. "What matters is now, with the fruits of Project: Discord, COBRA will return and take over the world!"

"Project: Discord?" Twilight questioned. Altering the zoom on her Morbot's camera, she could see Discord, turned gray by his own magic, stuck inside the chamber of the machine. "Where did you even find him!?"

"Silas' lackeys found him some random cave somewhere. To keep you from asking unnecessary questions, he had me relocate him while continuing to experiment on how to use Discord's magic for his own purposes! Naturally, I, with my brilliant mind, stole the project right out from under him!"

"He knew? I...why didn't he tell me? We...we could have avoided so much...the Iacon Relic Hunt...my dying...we..."

Starscream smirked, seeing his opportunity to extract vengeance and sever ties. "I should mention, Twilight Sparkle, that when I came to rescue you from MECH's cluctchs, Silas and his men threatened me unless I convinced you to aid them."

Rainbow Dash flew up into the air into the Twilight's Commandbot view. "Now do you see that MECH are the bad guys, Twilight?"

Twilight twirled the Forge of Solus Prime in the air and readied to bat Cobra Commander's mech.

"That's the Forge of Solus Prime!" Arcee whispered to Optimus. "How'd she get it?"

"I do not know. It is likely she liberated it from Decepticon hands, but the specifics elude me."

Optimus shot his Ion Blaster at Adams's rocket, blasting it out of the sky. The Joes, Fowler and Madison put the Walkers' firepower to good use blasting at the HISS tanks while Morocco's larger one slugged it's way through the trench.

"You think you're the only ones who know to build giant robots!?" Cobra Commander screamed, aiming his cannons at Team Prime and firing. The Autobots scattered to avoid the blast.

"Aaaa!" Twilight charged at Adam's machine and swung the Forge through it, smashing it's left arm off. Adam made the machine hop out of the way before she could smash it anymore.

"Behold!" Morocco's sneering drawl yelled from his vehicle. "The awesome power of my intellect, put to good use! Better use then our dear Madam Sparkle could ever think of!" It was clear from the way he spoke that he was nursing a grudge on Twilight for some reason.

The Discord machine aimed it's blaster at Twilight's Apex Armor, but the shot dispersed uselessly against the more-or-less invulnerable metal.

"Raarg!" Morocco readjusted the machine to take out Twilight's Morbots. The forcefully harnessed magic turned the Morbots into various things, like rubber ducky bath toys and stacks of hula hoops.

"It is likely that Twilight's Apex Armor is unaffected by Discord's magic due to it's origin." Optimus concluded as he blew open another HISS. "Avoid Morocco's fire!"

Deftly swerving his way through the tanks with the agility that justified his rank of 'Scout', Bumblebee skidded his way around to Morocco's slowly crawling tank, converted back into robot mode and leaped on top of it.

The Discord Machine swiveled and whirred, trying to throw the Scout off, but Bumblebee was nimble enough to dodge it. When he saw his chance, he plunged his fist into the pod, breaking the black glass, grabbed Discord, and tore him out of there. There were little cuts on Discord's body from the cables being so forcefully removed, but he seemed to appreciate being saved from COBRA too much to care about it.

"Oh, thank you so much!" The gray Draconequus exclaimed. "It was just dreadful in that machine. Awful, just awful I say! Thank you much old beEEEAAN!"

Bumblebee threw Discord over his shoulder into the dirt, then plunged his fist into the HISS tank's cockpit and pulled Morocco out.

"Aargh!" The good doctor screamed, hanging from Bumblebee's fingers by the scruff of his tasteful jacket. "Unhand me you brute!"

Bee-beep.

Bumblebee flicked Morocco aside, tossing him just in front of the Walker squadron.

Twilight took advantage of Adam's distraction, raising the Forge overhead and slinging it against his machine, utterly smashing it and sending the treacherous commander flying. He landed just a few inches away form Morocco, where Fowler then altered the machine to pin them both down.

Starscream fired both his arm rockets the remaining HISS tanks, blowing them up.

"Hmph!" Twilight slung the Forge over the Armor's shoulders and turned to walk away.

Team Prime and the Joes continued firing until the HISS tanks were reduced to such a number that the COBRA soliders were forced to recognize they couldn't win. They stepped out of their tanks and raised their hands in surrender.

"Adam DeCobray, you, Morocco, and your little cronies will be taken into custody by the United States Special Services." Fowler informed him.

Fowler grinned nervously. "Uh, well...you see...they're...uh...guys? Help me out here?" Fowler turned his head, but the Autobots and ponies were already out of sight. "Scrap."

Up ahead where Fowler couldn't see, Team Prime and the girls were gathered around Discord, who was quite content to just lay there like some freak show attraction if it meant no more experiments on his body. The ponies in particular were off-put by the the injuries he had sustained.

"Certainly not." Rarity agreed. "He's had a tough time...I almost feel sorry for him."

"Uh-huh. An' he's all gray, too. Remember when he did that to us? The only way we got snapped out of it was Twilight reminded us who we really were...Ah don't there's somepony around to do that fer Discord...Gosh, it almost seems wrong to use t'ah Elements on 'im!"

"The Elements! Where's Twilight?" Everypony (Autobots included) began looking in search of Twilight's super-machine, with no luck to it.

"Until such a time where we can locate Twilight Sparkle's whereabouts, it would be best if we were to put Discord into containment at base." Optimus said. Everypony agreed. Optimus activated his comm.

Silas was leisurely strolling through the ship's halls, not too terribly concerned about whatever goose chase Twilight had been on. It's not like it was something that affected his operations, right?

"Silas." Twilight said from behind him with a chill in her voice. Silas wasn't easily intimated, so he turned around without fear.

"Adam told me you knew where Discord was, and had him relocated so I wouldn't find him."

Twilight began approaching him. "In addition to that, Starscream told me when he came to rescue me from you, you threatened him to so you could convince me to help you."

Silas felt his back against a wall. Turning around, he saw it was one of the plague victim's foot. He looked at Twilight.

Reacting quickly and using his combat training, Silas pulled out a combat knife from his pocket and lunged at her. His limbs stopped in the middle of the air, grabbed Twilight's magic.

Silas attempted to move, to kick his assailant, to do something, but his entire body was immobilized by her power.

Silas closed his eyes in acceptance of his fate. "Go to the bridge. There's a little panel we attached to the bottom of a computer. Inside it are mine and Adam's laptops. There's information of Project: Mechanoid, Project: Damocles, and Adam's Bio-Viper experiments."

Twilight blasted a huge laser of magic at him, throwing upside down against a wall.

With his vision fading into black, the last thing Silas saw was the bottom of Twilight's hooves as she approached him. Then her head, slightly lowered so he could see her face.

Twilight looked up at her Terrorcon. The Dark Energon inside her pulsated as she gave it's command.

Twilight walked the other direction, heading for the bridge. She could ocanisannly hear the sounds of gunfire -and screaming- as MECH attempted to resist being thrown overboard.

Once she got to the bridge, she followed Silas' instruction to check the bottom of the ship's computer for a compartment...and sure enough, there was Adam's laptop and Silas'. She opened Silas' first, having no interest in whatever these 'Bio-Vipers' were.

"Project Mechanoid...an attempt to fuse a human mind into a robot body..." Twilight read aloud. "Interesting...hmmm...progress is slow because of insufficient tech to properly transfer mind into body...Neuron Refractor found in old Harbinger files may provide a solution."

"Project: Damocles...a laser satellite with a high-grade {} laser that can target anywhere on the planet...project was mothballed due to being too destructive and Leland Bishop was fired as a result..."

Starcream was strutting through the Harbinger, swaying the bucket of Red Energon he had liberated from the warehouse and beatboxing under his breath in celebration of his betrayal to Silas.

"Starscream!" Twilight yelled. "Prepare the science bays! I have an idea on how to...'punish' Silas."

Starscream rubbed his claws together, eager to dole out vengeance on Silas, perhaps more so then he had the right to. He walked away with a swagger in his step.

Cody slid down the firefighter pole into the lower part of the Rescue Station to report his success -or lack thereof- to the Rescue Bots.

Cody shook his head. "No. She said she wanted to build a friendship with me around the issue of you."

"A Space Bridge is an ancient piece of Cybertronian tech used for near-instant travel across the solar system." Chase explained. "Did Twilight Sparkle mention her intentions for the Space Bridge?"

Heatwave pounded his fists together. "Then we can't afford to find out. I'll contact Optimus right away."

Back on the ship that had recently been forcibly converted from 'MECH alliance' to "Twilight and Company alliance' possession, Starscream had been invited by Twilight to waltz in the room and see the result of her project she had him prepare the lab for.

"What...is that?" Starscream questioned, staring at a huge, Apex Armor-sized, red and silver non-Cybertronian robot with plugs hanging from the wall plugged into it. Huge red panels were wrapped over it's shoulders. It's hands weren't quite clawed, but they definitely weren't hands, having four digits. One cable was actually wrapped around it's chest and plugged into itself. It's head was like a blacksmith mask.

It's head turned, examining it's hands. It attempted to jerk free of the cables.

"What have you done?" Silas asked, but Starscream couldn't see him. The Seeker looked around for the human, not seeing him anywhere.

"Oh, you don't like it?" Twilight cooed, resting her legs on the railings. "It's your own Project: Mechanoid! I even used the Neuron Refractor like your file said!"

The robot jerked again, this time successful in breaking free of it's restraints. Now unbound, Silas examined his new robot hands again.

"The perfect fusion of man and machine..." Silas' robot head looked at Twilight.

"Oh yeah, since you brought that up..." Twilight said. "Dark Energon isn't good for humans, but does wonders for ponies and machines!"

Starscream looked up at Silas' new robot body, then to Twilight. "What abomination have you created!?"

"The 'abomination' that will provide me with a distraction to keep the Autobots from detecting my Space Bridge." Twilight answered.

Silas crossed his arms. "What makes you think I will be so willing to cooperate with you now, Miss Sparkle?"

Twilight didn't look amused. She draped the front half of her body over the railings, where the Dark Energon in her chest was readily visible. It pulsated.

After a few seconds passed, Silas' visor gave a purple glow, and he got on one knee.

"Yes you are." Twilight said, satisfied. She looked downwards at the Dark Energon in her chest, then started eying Starscream.

Starscream shifted his optics around the room, kinda hoping Twilight was staring at something other then him.

"I can't thank you enough for saving from those awful brutes!" Discord exclaimed. He snapped his fingers and made a feather duster appear in his talon. "Here, let me clean your base!"

Discord started rising up to the ceiling, but Ratchet grabbed his tail and pulled him back down, uncomfortable with the idea of Discord running loose in the base, even if he was all grayed out.

"How come Twilight didn't stick wit us long enough to blast Discord?" Applejack questioned outl oud. "Ah mean, she said she knew MECH were t'ah bad guys now, didn't she?"

"Bumblebee is correct." Optimus said. "While Twilight Sparkle has to acknowledge MECH's impure intentions, she said nothing of Starscream. It is not unreasonable to assume Starscream has taken the chance to convince her to overthrow MECH and take over the Morbot army for his own, unhindered use."

A familiar, if not often heard, computer beep went off. Optimus left for the room that held his computer he used for the Rescue Bots' contact.

"Twilight's trying to build a Space Bridge on Griffin Rock!" Heatwave informed him. "And she's somehow shanghaied her way into being it's Mayor, so there's not much we can do about it. Any ideas?"

Optimus cupped his chin. "To become Griffin Rock's Mayor, it would have been necessary for Twilight Sparkle to reveal herself to it's populace...it would be best if we understood Twilight's true motives for building a Space Bridge before taking action. She may very well wish to use it simply to return to her home world of Equestria. I suggest you send your human allies to infiltrate the build site."

Heatwave huffed, reached his hand over the screen and terminated the communication.

"Chief Burns, if you do not mind my asking, how are we to locate Twilight's Space Bridge?" Chase asked from his dashboard.

Chief Burns looked Chase's passenger window and saw a wooden sign on two post with some nice-looking calligraphy on it.

Interested in helping with the Griffin Rock Space Bridge Project?
Go This Way! -

"Somehow, Chase, I don't think that It'll be a problem." Burns steered the wheel to follow the sign's direction, where more signs with red or green painted arrows were dug to guide them to the Space Bridge's location.

Just as it became evident the signs were going to lead them into the eponymous Griffin Rock, Twilight Sparkle seemingly appeared from thin air to block their path.

Chase hit his brakes and opened his door. Burns got out and approached Twilight.

"Hey there, Chief!" Twilight greeted with a friendliness that was almost mocking. "What are you up to?"

Twilight shook her head. "Oh, no no no! I can't let you do that." She turned Chief Burns around with her hooves and started wheeling him back towards Chase. "As your Mayor, I need to make my Chief of Police is out there on the streets, policing!"

"No buts or you don't get your cookie, mister." Twilight shoved back into Chase's driver seat and closed the door before trotting off.

"No, it didn't..." Cheif Burns noted ruefully. Then he snapped his fingers. "Chase, I have an idea!" He pulled out Chase's built-in radio remote. "Cody, I need you to do something..."

A quick return drive to the Rescue Station and Cody was in Chase's passenger side.

"I need you to follow the signs to find Twilight's Space Bridge and figure out what she intends to use it for."

"Well, it's just...I already kinda abused Twilight's trust once." Cody explained. "And I would like to be her friend...but then there's the Autobots and MECH. I don't think she'd like if I pretended to be her friend."

"Cody, have you ever heard turnabout is fair play? Twilight just wants you to be her friend so she can get you to spy on Team Prime."

Cody wasn't so sure of that as his father was. Staring out the window, he looked at the signs.

Cody felt the rumble Chase's wheels stop, meaning it was time to get out. After doing so, Cody followed the signs directions on the sidewalks, finding Twilight walking, following the same signs just a few feet in front of him after he had traversed some distance.

At Cody's nervous whimper, Twilight's ears perked up. She turned around and was quite elated to see him.

"Cody!" Twilight rushed forward to greet him. "Did you change your mind about helping with the Bridge?"

Cody chuckled nervously. "Well, uh...why would you ask that? Haha! That's silly. You're silly. You're a silly pony, Twilight."

"Cody. If you can't be my friend because of the Autobots, just say so. Don't...don't string me on. Please."

"Right...anyways, MECH are not the good guys!" Cody swiped his hand across the air for emphasis.

"Oh. I figured that out." Twilight said. "I had my Terrorcons through them all overboard."

"Undead Auto-!?" Cody shook his head and covered his face. "Okay, this is coming at me way too fast...where are the MECH dudes now?"

Twilight chuckled sheepishly. "Eh-heh...um...they're...writhing in pain on the Griffin Rock mountain ledges."

Cody stared, transfixed at how lightly Twilight was taking this. "I'm not sure I want to be friend anymore if you just leave those guys lying there like that!"

Cody, realizing his error, threw his hands out. "No, wait! I didn't mean it like that! I just...that's mean, Twilight."

Twilight nodded. "Yeah...tell you what; you go get your dad and he can take Chase and arrest them all properly!"

A moment of quiet ensued as neither party knew where to steer the conversation after that.

Twilight reached over, bit the scruff of Cody's shirt, and threw him over onto her back.

"You caught me at a good time. I was just on my way to check how it was progressing."

Twilight galloped her way to the Griffin Rock mountain. As he was bounced on her back, Cody saw with a start that Twilight's Space Bridge was inside the old cavern that was part of the Sanctuary Plan.

"Twilight, you do realize your Space Bridge is inside the Sanctuary Plan's Shelter? As in, the one was too unstable to use!?"

"Yeah." Twilight assured him. "Don't worry. I've reinforced the structure with my magic intensely. There's no way it'll fall apart unless somepony goes out of their way."

Twilight brought him to the cavern that was the abandoned, non-functioning 'Sanctuary', where a large silver circle was lying flat on the ground with another silver circle mounted upwards on it vertically. Wooden pillars were scattered about the cavern, giving the occasional sparkle that suggested magic enhancement. Various citizens of Griffin Rock, from jocks with nothing else to do, to kids who were really only there because everyone else, were using tools on the circles, following the instructions given by the walls in the form of huge blueprints stamped to them.

"That's for me to know and Optimus Prime to worry about." Twilight rather naughtily told him.

"Mmm." Cody took another look at the work force, a bunch of people thinking they were just doing a strange community project for their new mayor, but Cody knew better.

...But could he really bring himself to actually do something about it, given how clear Twilight's liking to him had become?

Twilight trotted into the Harbinger's bridge, where the 'Cybernetic Lifeform Augumented By Symbiosis' or "Cylas" ("I see what you did there." the Terrorpony informed him.) was mapping out the location of his Damocles satellite.

"It's unlikely my former companions will have relocated it, considering the reason they terminated me to begin with."

"Excellent!" Twilight said. Then she gave him an evil eye. "You understand why I'll be upset if the satellite isn't there?"

"Good. Starscream!" Twilight shouted. "Prepare the GroundBridge for the military base!"

"If Twilight Sparkle is unwilling to discuss her plans for the Space Bridge, it is logical to assume her intentions are not as innoncent as we had hoped." Optimus told Heatwave through their computer. "Heatwave, you and your team will be in a legal jeopardy if you attempt to interfere with the Mayor's intentions. My team and I will arrive there to sabotage the Space Bridge shortly."

"PRIME!" so went Agent Fowler's catchphrase as it rolled through the halls off the comms.

Optimus went into the main room to see what Fowler needed. "What is it, Agent Fowler?"

"We got reports coming in that Twilight's Morbots are attacking a military base." Fowler explained.

"Why would Twilight want to attack a military base?" Arcee questioned, looking at Rainbow Dash. "It's not like they've been attacking her, is it?"

"We must not forget that General Madison's attempt to defend his airspace altered the course of Twilight Sparkle's plan to siege the Decepticon Warship." Optimus reminded them.

"Cause of what happened yesterday with COBRA. And I got a answer for your question." Fowler said. "This base is the location of Project: Damocles. An experimental satellite with a high-intensity beam that can cut through steel like butter. It's the work of madman. And in Twilight's hooves..."

"A threat to anyone, anywhere on the planet." Ratchet realized. "Optimus, we can't let Twilight get that satellite!"

Optimus looked somber. "Lest the Greek anecdote of The Hanging Sword is made manifest. Autobots, roll out!"

"Ponies, given our recent guest..." Optimus turned to Discord, then back to them, "I believe it would be best if you were to remain and stand guard over him, rather than assist with our mission."

Optimus, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Arcee all ran through the GrounBridge, transforming on their way in.

Twilight's Apex Armor-clad Morbot and Cylas stepped through straight into the military complex in search of the Damocles satellite.

The Autobot's GroundBridge appeared before them just after they arrived, much to their displeasure.

"We have Discord in custody! Accompany us back to our base so you and your friends may use the Elements of Harmony on him and return home!" Optimus shouted.

Optimus looked to his team, wondering if they agreed that Twilight didn't sound quite right.

"These humans..." Twilight gestured to the evacuted base. "They're such a poor specius, don't you agree, Optimus? They can't reap the benefits of Dark Energon like I can..or you could."

"Dark Energon corrupts and destroys everything it touches." Optimus narrowed his optics at her.

"I disagree. In fact, I'll think you'll find that Silas also enjoys Anti-Spark's wonders." Twilight gesutured to the robot next to her.

The Autobots looked at Cylas' new body with curiosity, confused as to how this could be Silas.

"Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am a Cybernetic Lifeform Augemented By Symbiosis." Silas flexed his hand, then took into a fighting a stance.

"I thought it was sad humans couldn't use Dark Energon, so I tried to figure out a way they could, and wouldn't you know it: merging a human with his own robot project solves the issue quite handiliy!" Twilight happily eleborated, despite the Autobots' increasingly apparent horror.

"Twilight Sparkle..." Optimus said, tranfixsed by Cylas' Dark Energon-hued visor. "You have made it so humans can also suffer Dark Energon's narcotic effects? What sin against nature have you wrought!?"

Twilight's hubris in her technical ability showed in her dismissal of Optimus's qualms. "Oh, psshaw! I prefer to think it of him as the next step in technology. Speaking of technology, Cylas! Distract them while I grab the satelite!"

"Autobots, pursu-HRRRRG!" Optimus lead his team after Twilight, but Cylas blindsided him with a fist to the cheek.

Bulkhead fired his arm-blasters, with little effect. Cylas grabbed him by the head and used him to bludgeon Bumblebee and Arcee onto to their backs, but when he turned around to do the same to Optimus, the Prime had gone.

Optimus, in vehicle mode, drove through the military base and swerved at the sight of Twilight's machine to intercept.

"That hammer you carry on your back is the Forge of Solus Prime. It belonged to Solus Prime, one of the orignial Thirteen."

"Only so that you will understand what it means when I say that the Forge is mine by birthright. I beseech you, Element of Magic, return to me what should be mine." Optimus offered his hand, and the hope and desperation in his optics was so thick as to be solid matter, rather then emotion.

Twilight's Morbot fired the Resonance Blaster at Optimus, pushing him along the concrete with a spiral pink blast of concentrated sound.

"Hmm...sub or super sonic!?" Twilight wondered, making the Resonace Blaster's blast increase in diameter -and force to the point it sent Optimus hurtiling onto his back. The Autobot leader incapcitated, Twilight got back on course.

Optimus groaned, rolled over, and tried to push himself back onto his feet, but a heavy blow to his back pushed him back down.

"Imagine the look on Mistress' face when I bring her your severed head!" Cylas gloated.

"Shock and disgust at the bodily mulitation, followed by rejoice at my demise." Optimus told him straight-forwardly.

Cylas leered at him. "I hope you realize your penchant for ruining fun, Optimus."

"It has been brought to my attention in the past." Optimus averted his gaze. "Perhaps more often then I would be willing to admit..."

Cylas put his hands together and raised them dramtically, ready to smash them straight into Prime.

"Cylas!" Twilight shouted, coming back with a huge crate in the Apex Armor's hands that seemed just the right size for a suitcase of the huge suit. "We have what we came here for. Bridge us out, 'Scream!"

Their GroundBridge opened just to the side of them and the two huge robots sprinted towards it.

Optimus raised his arm, converted it to blaster form, and attempted to fire at them as they retreated, with no success.

He switched his arm back into hand mode and pushed himself up to his knees before standing up completely.

"Rafael, complete whatever business you may have today quickly. Twilight Sparkle has stolen an experimental military satelite. We may require your technical apitude to counteract it."

Cody hunched over the side of the Space Bridge's base, prying a panel open with a monkey wrench and having a weight in his chest. He didn't want to hurt Twilight, but his family had been pressuring him to do something, and either way, he was going to let down someone...might as well stick with the family.

"Hello everypony!" Twilight's tone was jovial and friendly...making Cody wince as he knew what was coming. "I've just come to check up on everyone. Everything okay?"

"Yeah-huh." The citizen nodded, then gestured to Cody. "But something's troubling poor Cody 'ere."

"Cody!" Twilight yelped, running up to him. "You changed your mind about helping?" Twilight was quite obviously very excited at the prospect of him helping.

Twilight's exciment transformed into worry. "Might?" Twilight stepped over the edge and looked at the open panel Cody had been working. "Cody, this doesn't follow the instructions on the walls...do you have reading problems?"

"No..." Cody groaned, covering his face with his hands as he felt the disappointment coming.

"I..." Twilight stutted. "Cody! I told you not to string me along! And you know what you did!? You strung me!"

"I-I know, Twilight, I'm sorry- but-" Cody raised up to look Twilight in the eyes...and instantly regretted it. Her violet irise were just ever so slightly dilated, and she was snorting.

"YAAAH!" Kade charged forward with a fire-ax gripped tightly in his hands. Cody's scream, however, had put Twilight on alert, and she gazed over her shoulder-eqivalent area. She bucked Kade in the chest, pushing him to his back and making drop the ax.

Kade was still concious, and reached for the ax, but Twilight's tail curled around it and lifted it out reach.

"Ooh, you humans do love your fire axes, don't you?" Twilight mused, using her tail to pin Kade down with the ax's handle driving into his stomach.

Twilight snorted at Cody and swept her hoof across the air. "Both of you get to the City Hall. I, as your Mayor, have an announcment to make."

Twilight raised the ax in her tail, slamming the blade into the base just besides Kade's head, and teleported out.

"Twilight really made sure everyone knew she had announcement, didn't she?" Kade posed, shoving someone out of the way.

After some more finagling, they got to where they could see Twilight on the Mayorial stand, with Mister Alper at her side, unsure of what was going on.

Twilight scanned the crowd. Seeing the Burnses had arrived seemed to her criteria to start speaking. Tapper her hoof on the microphone to check it's acoustics, she began.

"Attention, citizens of Griffin Rock! A issue has come to my attention regarding you."

"More specifically, it has come to my attention that you humans, as a species, are inheretly unreliable, practially programmed for deceit and violence. As such, I will be forcibly converting Griffin Rock's government of democracy to the same monarchy as that of my home world of Equestria! From now, you will refer to me as 'Princess Twilight Sparkle.' There will be no more elections, only the heir to my throne. "

"Um, Twilight?" Mister Alper asked. "You can't just change goverment systems like that!"

The crowd was alarmed as a huge shadow fell over them. Looking up, they saw what could only be describe as an ailen ship in their beloved skies.

A squardon or Morbots flew out from a hatch in the ship's bottom and landed on the steps of City Hall, one of which aimed it's arm-cannon at Alper.

"From this point onward, Mister Alper, I AM the law." Twilight told him. The other Morbots aimed their cannons at the crowd. "Any other objections, subjects!?"

The crowd was silent, most of them too terrified to say anything, but the Burnses were more horrified that something like this could be happening right in front of them- with very little they could do about it.

"Good." Twilight snarled. She launched a beam from her horn into the air, where it spread into a line. The line split and began covering the island in a dark purple starry force field.

"And now my first decree as your new sovreign: the completion of the Space Bridge! Anypony-" she was making it quite clear in her emphasis of words that she no longer considered the humans her equals, "Found not following the instructions will suffer very unpleasant experiences. Cody." Twilight glared daggers at the little blonde boy in the crowd.

The other citizens of Griffin Rock began looking at Cody, wondering if he had maybe done something that caused Twilight's change in demeanor.

"Everyone stay calm!" Cheif Burns shouted, raising his hands for attention. "We're going to get our Rescue Vehicles and put a stop to this!"

"I'd love to see you try, Charles!" Twilight shouted at him. "Subjects, clear the way so the Burns family of heroes can try to reject progress."

The crowd anxiously did as told, parting way to give the Burns family a clear path out.

More Morbots flew out from the Harbinger, making the Burnses understand Twilight's seeming cockiness.

"Cheif Burns, I was of the impression it was already under her control through entirely lawful manevers of mysterious circumstances?"

"Aaagh, we'll explain when we get there! Right now we need to you contact Optimus!"

"Optimus, we have an emergency!" Heatwave hoped his wording would spur Optimus to answer. "Why isn't he responding?"

"Uh, Heatwave?" Boulder pointed at the window. Heatwave joined him at and saw Twilight Sparkle's force field.

"Whatever that thing is, it must be jamming our signal." Heatwave deduced. "Looks like we're on our own."

Blades put his hand to his chin. "Against Twilight all by ourselves? You saw how Optimus reacted when he found out she was here!"

"I did, which is why we need to give this our all." Heatwave pointed his hand. "Rescue Bots, roll to the rescue!"

Heatwave, Boulder, Chase and Blades all transformed and sped their way out the Rescue Station and down Griffin Rock's roads.

"Dani, Blades, take Cody back to base. It's probably best if Twilight doesn't see him for awhile."

"Will do, dad." Blades picked Cody and headed back to the base while the remaing Rescue Team drove uptown to City Hall.

The crowd of citizens gathered had dispersed... as had Twilight and her Morbots. Instead, waiting for them there was Cylas.

"Cylas." The creep told him. "I am here by order of Princess Twilight to put you rogues in line."

Chase raised a finger. "Heatwave, that phrase makes little sense, taken literally."

Heatwave pulled out his ladder and twirled it in his hand, charging at Cylas. Heatwave stuck the ladder against the fusion, but it just kla-clanged uselessly. Cylas grabbed Heatwave by the waist and threw him into the City Hall's pillars, bringing them down on top of him.

Boulder clapped his hands together, producing his sonar, but Cylas simlialy shrugged that off as well. Cylas charged at him, grabbed the head, and threw him into Chase, knocking them both down.

"Stasis cuffs!" Boulder and Chase exclaimed. Before the two of them could do anything about it, Cylas propped them both up and slapped the cuffs on both of them.

Heatwave dug himself out of the rubble, only for Cylas to grab his wrists and slammed the cuffs on him too. Heatwave growled at him. Cylas punched him in the face to spite him, pushing him back into the rubble.

Blades appeared overhead, transformed and landed on his feet. "Sorry I'm late. Where's the bad guy?"

Blades noticed his teammates all cuffed and giving him looks, while Cylas was leering at him.

"Eeehhn..." Blades pipped nervously and started backing away. He transformed and took to the air. Cylas reached upwards to grab him, but missed. Blades flew off, knowing he probably wouldn't be a match for Cylas' enhanced strength.

Cylas rounded the captive Bots up in a straight line. "You will be taken to the Harbinger for Mistress to moniter. And don't even think about trying to eject your little humans to sneak under the radar: our Morbot's are everywhere."

Twilight imperiously trotted her way back into the Space Bridge, Starscream now allowed to walk freely under her new reign, he walked behind and made boogieman faces at the humans, under careful watch by Morbots.

"Careful, Starscream." Twilight jokingly chided. "You might spook the wildlife."

Starscream chuckled darkly. "Hahaha..." his laughter dimisihed at the sight of the still-incomplete Space Bridge. "I must say, Twilight-"

"Princess Twilight." Starscream corrected. "Why have we not activated the Space Bridge?"

"It's still incomplete, Starscream." Twilight told him. "Besides, I want to be certain that Optimus is distracted by Damocles when we activate. I know my force field will damper the Autobot's sensors." Twilight looked at the papers on the walls. "But this Space Bridge takes a lot of energy. I think they'll detect it through the field..."

"Damocles out in orbit to keep from interfering with the Space Bridge while it's actually active." Twilight summarized.

"Ah, yes...I see." Starscram pointed his finger. "Point of order: why is so imperative to distract the Autobots?"

In short order, Twilight ordered the Harbinger high above the Griffin Rock mountain so it could relase the satelite into orbit. The Damocles satelite was like a huge blue piston with a needle at the end. It unfolded orange panels like wings unfolded from its sides as it jetted up through the air's orbit.

And for reasons known only to herself, Twilight was atop Damocles as it rose, clad in a MECH space suit more like the one Jack had worn during his trip to Cybertron.

The Autobots were all anxious in the base, wondering what was wrong with Twilight. The Ponies were just trying to keep Discord ocupied, which generally boiled down to having to make Ratchet consent to letting the gray mule-lizard soap wash the ceiling. The computer picked up a signal.

"Optimus!" Ratchet exclaimed. "I'm picking up a signal in close proximity to Griffin Rock's skylines."

"We must prevent the satellite's power from being misused." Optimus said. "Ratchet, prepare the GroundBridge for orbital exit."

"Orbital exit?" Rarity questioned. "You can use the GroundBrige to get into space?"

"Barely." Ratchet replied. "The GroundBridge can be calculated to leave the atmosphere, but a Space Bridge would be required for controlled transport." Ratchet knew what was on Rarity's mind. "It can't be used to take you home..."

"Can I come with this time?" Dash asked, not wanting babysit Discord anymore. "I didn't get to go last time."

"Oh, um...if she goes, then can I come?" Fluttershy added. "I would like to try to talk to Twilight..."

"Very well." Optimus said. "Ratchet, triangulate Damocles' trajectory and activate the GroundBridge."

Dash and Fluttershy zipped out of the room and came back in their spacesuits. (Fluttershy wasn't particular willing to find out if being half-Insecticon gave her the same traits that allowed Cybertronians to walk unprotected in space.)

Coming out on the other end, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash found themselves taken aback slightly at suddenly being in outer space, without any ship around to give them a sense of where they were. Stars and blackness everywhere, but nothing to latch on to.

"It is unlikely Twilight has the nessecary protection to survive in the vaccum of space." Optimus said. "I also do not believe she would cost herself the advantages afforded by being able to operate the satelite remotely."

The Autobots and ponies looked upwards to see the satelite floating just above them by a few feet, with Twilight in her own suit on top of it.

"Twilight Sparkle," Optimus said, pulling his blasters, "Deactivate the satelite, and stand down!"

Her magic still funcitonal even in the gravitational constrained pit of space, Twilight levitated a huge chunk of Dark Energon out for all to see. She took a moment to watch Team Prime's shocked expressions, then plunged the cluster into the satelite.

"Just think, Optimus." Twilight gloated as she hopped off the satelite and floated away from it. "With Damocles alive, I'll have somepony to enforce my reign from space!"

"The reign of my newly self-instated Princesshood over Griffin Rock, made nessecary by the human factor. You know what gets me, Optimus? These humans are all liars and two-timers, but you seem intent on protecting them. Why is that?"

"Hmph! They should pay a lot more than that. When I'm done with you, Optimus, I'm going to do to Griffin Rock what I did for Cylas, using his Mechanoid project to make it so that the humans can finally experience Dark Energon the way it's supposed to be!"

Dash and Fluttershy looked at each other again in bewilderment at Twilight's words.

Optimus' gaze hardened, his browplates furrowing. He turned around to face the pegasi with him.

"Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash." He said seriously. "We often choose to do things that cost us something, in return for giving our friends something. However, there comes a time when what it cost us to give our friends that something, it is beyond what we can pay...to the point that others with no relation to us suffer for it."

"I am so sorry." The Prime told them in his deep, stony voice that sounded like it was crying deep inside.

Something mechanical started whirring, depriving Fluttershy of her answer. Looking around, it could be seen that Damocles had started transforming, its body splitting into some sort of segmented...thing. The solar panels turned upside down, making them more like wings. The needle part stayed in what would be its chest. It formed a serpertine head and tail, the tail ending in a plunger and the elongated head ending in a eyestalk with a large blue optic, with lines on it to suggest targeting systems at work inside. A bunch of segmented, poker-tipped joints popped out from it's sides around the needle, like protecting it.

The infusion of Dark Energon had given the inanimate machine a loose semeblacne to life, even giving some sort of robot mode. The end result was also much, much bigger then Damocles was when it started.

"Fire!" Arcee ordered. She, Bumblebee and Bulkhead all began firing blus lasers at the monstrocity. Dash prepared her tail-mounted rifle. Fluttershy attempted to convert her hoof to stinger mode, but it was useless inside her space-suit's cloth.

The needle sticking out of Damocles' chest began glowing orange like the solar panel.

"Yes!" Twilight cheered with a malicous smile, the Dark Energon in her chest pulsating. "Melt the Autobots into molten salg, my hanging sword!"

The glowing orange needled fired huge streaming laser beam, which Dash and Fluttershy just barely split apart from each other enough to avoid being burned alive.

If her muzzle was anything to go on, Twilight hadn't meant for that to happen. "The Autobots, not my friends!"

Damocles roared, flapped it's solar panels/wing, twirled around and swatted Twilight off to the side with it's tail.

Twilight stared off into space, pausing to think. Damocles was somehow...out of her control.

"Hey," Dash said as the Autobots jerked themselves in different directions to avoid Damocles' blast. "Where's Optimus?"

Optimus was rising up behind Twilight with one arm in blade mode, the stars reflecting on the sharp instrument. Twilight hadn't seemed to notice him.

Dash was in disbelif while Fluttershy worried. She in fact got so worried she couldn't keep herself from screaming.

"Huh?" Twilight turned around just as Optimus swung his sword. Her horn lit up, and she teleported in her purple flash, causing Optimus' sword to tear through nothing with a silver crescent trail behind it's arc.

"We must focus on Damocles!" Optimus shouted, both directing his troops and putting the incident that happened just now behind him.

As his Autobots drew it's fire, Optimus wriggled through space to get to Damocles' backside. Electric arcs shot out from his soles as he gravitized to the beast's back. Optimus looked around, and spotting a panel, tore if off, revealing the rocket fuel tank the satelite was meant to use to change it's direction.

With his sword still out, Optimus plunged it into it's tank...causing an explosion that had enough force to make Damocles began descending back into Earth's not-too-far-from-here atomsphere.

"This was perhaps not the wisest course of action..." Optimus muttered as he and Damocles began re-enty, flames shooting around Optimus Prime from both descent and the explosion.

Essentially, when translated from Optimus' speech to normal people speech, the sentence boiled down to "This wasn't a good ideeEEEEEEEAA!"

"Arcee? What's your status? I'm dececting an object much larger then Damocles in re-entry!"

"That's Damocles..." Arcee assured him. "After Twilight put one the biggest chunks of Dark Energon I've seen into it. Optimus is in there, too!"

Arcee growled, not in the mood to deal with any unexpected delopements. "What's strange?"

"I can detect the skyline above Griffin Rock just fine..but Griffin Rock seems to have just- disappeared from the radar!"

"Too risky! What exactly is making Griffin Rock not appear, Arcee? Ask yourself that. We'll just have to hope he'll survive..."

"Hey, Doc! Tell our Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie that if weren't for Fluttershy, Optimus would've cut Twilight in half!"

Twilight trotted along the back of the Harbinger, Starscream, Nemesis Prime, and the Command Morbot with the Apex Armor's disc in it's claw were waiting for her. The captive Rescue Bots were standing further back, kept where the ship's commander officiers could see them.

The four of them oblivous to the hugmongous Damocles satelite with Optimus, inbound straight for their ship.

Optimus could barely make out Twilight's force field through his shroud of flames. He wasn't familar with Twilight's spell, due to his Spark being elsewhere at the time, but was knowledgable in general to the point he knew.

Damocles' burning form crashed into the force field, shattering a hole in it large enough for the monstricity to smash straight into the floating Harbinger, much to Starscream's and Twilight's surprise.

There was a huge burst of fire and smoke from the crash, initally keeping Twilight and Starscream from seeing, but when the smoke cleared...

They could Optimus Prime sticking out of Damocle's shattered body, leaking Energon from hismself and his eyes having lost all luster.

"He's dead!" Twilight shouted in joy. "He's gone! The Last of the Primes is GONE! HAHAHA!"

Twilight teleported into her Morbot, made it equip the Apex Armor, and began dancing and jumping around. "He's gone!"

"I can't believe it." Boulder said. "I see it with my own optics, but I still can't believe it!"

"And with Optimus out of the way..." Twilight's Apex Armor pulled Starscream into a bone-crushing bearhug. "There's nopony to keep me from using Project: Mechanoid on allll of the humans!"

"Erh, yes!" Starscream muttered, flailing his legs in an effort to get out of the hug before Twilight acidentally crushed something important. "Congratulations, Princess Twilight Sparkle, on succeeding where Megatron and many others have failed!"

Twilight:

Wha-!? Uhhh, uhhh, ummm...er
Once the Mechanoid results are duplicated,
The humans will all become, uh...Dark Energon...inebriated?

Once they see through their visors their old behaviors,
They'll look up to me as their undead savior!

The cyborgs will slurp up Dark Energon drinks
Optimus Prime says it's wrong to alter a specius ...

"Hahaha!" Twilight laughed, skipping around and dancing with Starscream in her Armor. She took his claw and twirled him, then spun around...

Twilight made her robot look around, and at her feet was the Dark Energon-leaking corpse of Nemesis Prime.

Looking at Damocles' corpse, which now had holes torn into it like something inside had gotten out. It became clear to Twilight what had happened.

She was slightly miffed, as in her view, Optimus had used one of her creations to destroy another one.

Optimus Prime fired his blaster, firing out a huge, HUGE boulder of blue energy that sent the invincible, immovable Apex Armor flying across the ship.

Twilight's Morbot bent its legs to slow its air time, and skidded across the Harbinger's floor with sparks abuzz from the scrapes.

"HA!" Twilight laughed. "The Apex Armor is invincible, Optimus, you can't destroy it! Or did you not get that memo?"

"It was never my intent to destroy." Optimus said calmly, but there was something about what he said that put Twilight on edge.

Twilight and Starscream looked up in awe as the celestial Forge-and-hammer-in-one twirled through the air, landing straight into Optimus Prime's raised hand with a KKLANG.

Optimus Prime wrapped his fingers around the Forge, wrapped his other hand around it's shaft and lowered it to his midriff.

The Forge of Solus Prime, now in the hands of its true heir, wrapped itself in golden flames, the gears inside turning and its spokes folding and unfolding excitedly.

Twilight, undaunted (in sharp contrast to the buckling-knee'd Starscream) aimed her Resonace Blaster at Optimus, sending its spiral blast at him.

Optimus swung the Forge straight into the blast, making its head meet the blast, which dispersed in a gonging noise Bulkhead would've described as 'satisfying.'

Optimus began swinging the hammer around in circles, a gold Ion trail emitting behind it's head as he did so. After enough loops the Ion trail got thicker, Optimus jumped into the air, swung the hammer upwards and brought it smashing down into the Harbinger, sending out a huge golden shockwave that rivaled a Sonic Rainboom in both beauty and power.

The pieces of the Ponies' stolen ship used to help hold the Harbinger together cracked and shattered like glass. The broken pieces poured out of the ship like spilt sand, restoring the ship to it's divided in half state. The two halves separated and began descending, Optimus and Damocles on one end, and Twilight's party on the other.

The Morbots came swarming out of the ship's broken halves with their rockets flaming and their cannons primed. The Autobot plague victims were there too, but as they couldn't fly, they just clung to the edge of the ship's ledge and vainly attempted to grasp at Optimus.

Optimus raised the hammer over his head and slammed into the edge of the Harbinger half, producing another gold shockwave which traveled through the vertically and blew up every last Morbot and Terrorcon in range.

Twilight's mouth hung open in surprise. She calmed down and made her personal Morbot- the last Morbot lift off with the Apex Armor and Resonance Blaster.

Optimus looked down at the mountain below him several miles down. The Autobot leader stepped back from the ledge, then ran for it and jumped off. Placing the Forge beneath him, he landed (more-or-less...) gracefully, with the Forge's pointed pole stabbing into the ground, his limbs spilling over the sides of the hammerhead he was lying on.

Optimus grunted and climbed his way off the Forge and onto solid ground. He picked the Forge up, and shortly afterwards saw Heatwave, Chase and Boulder walking towards with their stasis cuffs raised.

"I, uh...don't suppose you could do something about these, could you Optimus?" Heatwave asked sheepishly.

Everyone jumped in their skin at the sound of a sudden shriek. Optimus saw Damocles, beaten and battered and burned it was, climbing up the broken wreck of the Harbinger that lodged into the mountain side.

Optimus dropped the Forge to the ground and pointed at it. "Keep an eye on that. I shall return to you shortly."

Optimus sprinted forward to the mountain's ledge and jumped off it and onto the slow-but-steadily rising Damocles with gymastic precison, wrapping his arms around the monstricity's neck. Damocles writhed, trying to shake Optimus off.

"...Give me your face." Optimus told the beast unamusedly. Reaching his arm out, he equipped his sword and drove in the back of Damocles' neck, eventually shearing off the whole thing's head.

Damocles' still refused to give up, so Optimus aimed his blaster at it's empty neck hole and started using said hole as entry point to start pumping the whole thing full of lead. Once Optimus had a fired a shot straight through it's neck to it's tail, it finally collapsed to the ground for good.

Blades twisted his wrists, now free thanks to Ratchet's work. The medic had filed the cuffs away for 'further use', but the Copter-Bot wasn't too concerned about it. Him having been the last one to be freed, the Rescue Bots exited the GroundBridge back to Griffin Rock.

"Now that they're gone..." Rarity said dangerously. "We would like to talk to you, Optimus Prime."

"How may I be of service, Rarity?" Optimus asked in his normal, stony tone of voice.

Smog trickled it's way out of Optimus' smokestacks. Slowly, suggesting there was something on Optimus' mind.

"In the course of our most recent encounters, Twilight Sparkle has revealed to us a product of MECH science that fused together man and machine. She has informed us of her intent to use on the entire human populace, so they may ingest Dark Energon with results more comparble to that of a Cybertronian's."

Optimus stomped both his feet forward, producing frictions sparks and making the ponies flinch. (Rarity more so than the others.)

"Mankind will not pay the price for my inability to save your friend. Is that understood!?"

Everyone, seeing the situchation was gettin tense, all departed their respective groups and took to seperate corners of the base and the room.

Pinkie stood where she was, watching as Optimus left. Of all the ponies, she, in her quirkyness, was the only one to find Optimus' wording off.

At Twilight's Space Bridge, still under her control despite the lack of her Morbot enforcers, the Mayor Princess of Griffin Rock was getting the Space Bridge ready, the citizens having finally completed it's blasted cycle.

Though left with only one Morbot, thanks to the Apex Armor and Cylas, Twilight was still quite ready to punish anypony who tried to subvert her rule. As such, she had rounded up Cody and brought him before the Space Bridge, intent on making him watch as-

Starscream, the Morbot, and Cylas watching over the entire Bridge and manaing the controls, Twilight stepped through the portal that was identical to the GroundBridge one except for larger size.

It was quite some time before she came back. Enough time Starscream and Cody began wondering whether or she was coming back.

"Okay!" Twilight shouted perkily as she hopped back out of the Space Bridge. "It's ready! My master plan- to use a creature whose true power I've only read about in legends!"

Cody was unimpressed, and was about to rebuke that Twilight was crazy when he heard metal footsteps behind him. Turning around, he raised his arm at what he saw and backed away. "W-what the heck is that!? It's huge!"

"Ahhh..." A deep, booming, echoing booming boomy-boom voice of doom remarked at Cody's fright. "You must be one of the human vermin Twilight Sparkle was telling me about."

"Oauh!" Starscream gasped. He brought one arm in front of him and bowed. "For all my pride as a Cybertronian, even I am smitten with this 'weapon's beauty."

"Come on!" Twilight put her hooves to her mouth and giggled. "My 'weapon'...there's one last thing I need before we can send you out."

Madison and the Joes were sitting Madison's base, enjoying an afternoon snack after their day. The Walkers were close by in case they needed them, but Lieutenant Scarelett had dismiised them saying that with Adam behind bars, there was no one to worry about.

A sentiment quickly proven wrong as Madison's soldiers started shouting and rushing across the base, giving their own orders while Madison couldn't give his through a mouthful.

"There's a- something outside the base! We don't know what it is, but it's angry- and tearing through the soldiers like mincement!"

"Whaat?" Madison exclaimed. "All right, Joes, get to the Walkers!" Madison pointed at his machines, but purple laser blasts from on high swooped down and turned them into smoking wrecks, toppling them over.

"Uhhh..." Madison said, looking to see what thing had done that to his glorius mechs. "Joes! Hold that thing off while I get help!"

Scarlet, Snake Eyes, and Ripcord nodded, standing up and pulling out their respective weapons- a cross, the swords, and a grappling hook.

"Resistance is futile, you vermin! I will not be denied!" Twilgiht's weapon shouted at them.

Scarlet aimed her crossbow, only for it glow red and burn her hand. "Aaa!" She dropped it just in time to keep her hand from being smothered in the liquid metal.

Snake Eyes sidestepped with his swords in hand. Twilight's weapon landed in front of him in and batted him aside.

"Whoa!" Ripcord whistled. "We're gonna have to pull out the big guns on you, aren't we?"

Ripcord's entire body turned into a blue goop, which expanded and reformed as a vaguely reptilian monster of some sort.

"Goodness! Can all humans do that, or are you a unique case?" Twilight's weapon questioned.

"I'm sure Twilight will be interested to learn more about these...Bio-Viper experiments."

Madison jogged through the military halls of his office, trying to reach his communcation network. Eventually, shoving open and locking behind him the door to his office, he reached it. Bending over the table, he pushed a button beneath the speaker.

"This is General Madison of the United States Military, repeat, this is General Madison of the United States Military! My base is under attack by some sort-"

Madison froze, hearing metal being ripped and shorn behind him. Against his better judgement, he turned around to face what was invading. The thing that had been attacking all his soldiers now had him captive in his own office. In the holes it had torn through the walls, Madison could see it's single eye- a dark purple circle with red runic lines running through it like unnaturally straight veins.

"Call for the one called 'Agent Fowler'. He will be able to lead our Prime here...oh, and one more thing. Tell Optimus to come alone, or there will be consequences."

"Ehh, hey, William! I have a bit of a sitchuation here...you know anything about an 'Optimus Prime? I'm kinda being held hostage by some...thing that wants to see him alone."

The Autobot GroundBridge opened in the midst of the ruin of Madison's base. Optimus stepped out and was shakend by the distruction he saw. The buildings in ruins, the humans' own weapons broken in half on the ground, and the Walker machines parts spread everywhere. Jagged shrapnel juttted out of the ground, and small flames were present in various areas. They would burn out before spreading...but Optimus was still upset that someone had caused such devastation just to bring him out.

Optimus:

(Sighs) So, here we are once more.

Someone willing to destroy so much

Just to bring me to their door

I look at the burning buildings...the burned down homes.

I wonder why we all fire these

Female Choir/Optimus:

Bullets

Optimus

In black...

Female Choir/Optimus

Bullets

Optimus:

In silver...

Female Choir/Optimus

Bullets

Optimus:

In chrrooome!

Look at these broken thumbs,
cracked from banging
war's droning drums
That haunting melody lies still within my head
My Spark aches and yearns for
those senseless dead

As I hear their dying breathes,
I wonder why
We have to fire these bullets that only know one word
Choir:
...Death...

Optimus
I thought we all could be something more...
But at our core,

we all are just machines of war.

I hear the bullets scream death as they pass by
And they arrre screaming as they diiiiieee...

Female Choir:

There lies that silver mech
Fighting to protect

all mankind

There he stands with his valves torn
On his armor
Centuries of wear worn

He blames himself for his part

Can you hear that pain beating in his Spark?

He blames... His part.

Pain.. beating in his Spark.

Optimus:

Why when problems ariiiiise

The universal solution is always
'Put a round between it's eyyes?'

Ashs and smoke rising from metals

So slagged they as well be stone

I hate having to fire these...

Female Choir/Optimus:

Bullets

Female Choir

In black...

Bullets

In silver...

Bullets

In chrome...

Optimus had walked as he sung, allowing him to see what had been wanting to see him, perched atop a jagged shrapnel imperiously and staring down at him.

Optimus gazed upwards at his opponent. Despite never having seen it before, he recognized it. He knew it. He knew the name of the Valkyrie's Steed, of the Angel of Wrath up above him. The one being he knew of in the universe that could rival him in not just strength, but wisdom and justice as well.

Never one to forget his manners even in the face of adversity, Optimus got on one knee.

Up on the shrapnel, Celestia stood there, ready for battle, her compassiate eye corrupted into a horrific purple and red color scheme by the Dark and Red Energon stuck into her body at various points. Red Energon spurs pointed upwards from the back of her hooves, Dark Energon crystal graced the tips of her feathers, the corruption was thorough enough that her sherbet-colored hair was purple, dark red, and an evil pink instead of friendly pink, green and blue.

"Bowing, my Prime?" Celestia asked, dropping the Royal Canterlot Voice. "How humble of you."

"I notice you are carrying Dark Energon on your persona, Your Majesty. Whatever your intention is while on Earth, I ask you refrain from using it."

Celestia dismissed his concern with a huff from her nose. "Rest assured, Optimus, when my faithful student first showed it to me, I was reluncant to take up such a black substance, but she assured me that all traces of any Energon in me she would remove once-" Celestia put the tip of her wing to her chin in thought. "Ooooh, what did she say? Oh, yes, I believe her exact words were 'after I've torn you into scrap!'"

Optimus grimaced. "Be that as it may, Your Majesty, I ask you spare the humans your seemingly divine wrath. The defenseless humans should not suffer from a grudge held against me."

Celestia looked at him like he was crazy. Her horn glowed purpled. Optimus heard metal groaning and crunching behind him, and turned around to see a tank- what was left of it after Celestia's rampage- being guided towards him in Celestia's magic.

The Princess spread her wings, showing off the Dark Energon in them. The crystals sunk into her flesh...and with a disgusting, disgusting noise like an organic version of the classic transformation noise, reappeared at the tips of her wings as singular solid blades.

Celestia hopped off the shrapnel and came at him in the form of a blazing purple meteor with a red tail behind it. Optimus raised his blade and pushed with all his might to keep Celestia from steamrolling him. He swung his arm, batting her through the air. Benefitting the grace of somepony called 'Princess' Celestia recovered quickly.

Optimus changed his sword back into it's hand and gave Celestia the one-two, alternating his which of her beautiful cheeks he punched, but when he went in for a third one, Celestia's hoof stopped it mid-way, batted his arm aside, and then punched him, throwing him backwards and denting his faceplate.

Optimus shook his head to recover, then redrew his sword when he saw Celestia changing into a meteor again. Blue energy formed around Optimus' sword from the amount of force he was putting into it.

Silently, the Princess and the Prime charged at each other with sword and horn raised.

Their pointed bits collided in mid-air, causing an explosion of Energon and magic.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Friendship Is Magic: Prime

by Darkryt Orbinautz

For All Mankind: The Hanging Sword