//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: An Arrangement // Story: Transformers Armada: Starscream's Requiem // by Legofan //------------------------------// His sword was to her neck immediately. He gave a savage growl as he thrust his weight on the unsuspecting pony, pinning her down with his free hoof while his other held his weapon ready to slit open the throat of the mare that had very nearly killed him. Behind him, Twilight and Spike gasped, but Starscream ignored them as he toyed with the idea of opening her up right there. The cyan pony under him was visibly trembling, staring up at him with scared and helpless eyes. They watered in the corners. But she seemed resolved to not shed any tears, gradually steeling herself as Starscream stalled. But he just couldn’t bring himself to kill her. Maybe it was because she didn’t kill him, and in the end, he did get an actual repair instead of a simple patch. There was no more time to dwell on it, though, as he felt himself being lifted into the air rather viciously and his weapon was ripped out of his hoof, presumably by Twilight’s magic. Then, there was a click sounding from within his wound, and he felt pain as he flailed in the unicorn’s telekinetic grasp. “Stop there, Starscream!” Twilight shouted, as if it hadn’t already been done. Seeing his look of discomfort, she smirked. “You didn’t actually think I’d fix up an alien machine without implementing some sort of kill-switch for a situation just as this, did you?” Wretched ponies! “Thanks, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said shakily, rubbing at the area where Starscream’s sword had been pressed against her coat. “You think of everything.” She seemed to ignore the comment, though, focusing entirely on the Decepticon. She turned Starscream so that he was facing her. Her expression was hard, but it gradually softened as the silence between the room’s four occupants dragged on. Gently, she set him down, but she kept his sword away from him. “Make any sudden moves, and you’ll be getting a nasty shock. Agree to my proposition, and I’ll consider undoing the kill-switch,” she announced. In response, he gave her a blank, neutral gaze. Rainbow Dash, however, was more vocal in her response. “What?! This thing almost cut off my head, and you’re even considering undoing that switch thingy?!” Still, Twilight ignored Rainbow Dash. “Starscream, I can understand you wanting to do harm to Rainbow Dash, and I can even mostly forgive this one instance. It was wrong of her to attack you as she did, but that does not justify you returning the favor.” Twilight then turned to Rainbow Dash. “Dash, I hope you can understand why he lashed out at you. I’m not asking you to forgive him, but please don’t hold it against him.” In turn, Rainbow Dash glared at Starscream. “Starscream’s what this thing’s called? I’ll leave it alone if it leaves me alone. Best I’ll do.” “Fair enough,” answered Starscream. “But how about I leave all of you alone? Give me my wing back, let me deliver me message to Celestia, and I’ll be out of your scan range for good.” “Interesting offer, Starscream, but no,” Twilight resolutely answered. “I’m not letting you anywhere near the Princess with how hostile you appear to be. Here’s what’s going to happen: I’m going to keep your sword until you’ve earned it back by changing your behavior.” Rainbow huffed. “How do you propose that’ll happen?” “You girls and I will teach him to be sociable.” “What?!” the blue one yelled again. “Starscream and I have already agreed to leave each other alone, and now you want me to be near this thing?” Twilight stepped closer to Rainbow Dash, lowering her voice to a level she thought Starscream couldn’t hear, though unbeknownst to her, he simply upped his audio sensitivity so that he could. “You don’t actually have to interact with him, but I’d like you around just in case he decides to fly off or if we have to use the Elements against him.” Rainbow seemed to relax a bit at that. “Yeah, that makes sense, I guess. I suppose I can do that for you, Twi. Forgive me if I actually kinda hope he tries something, though.” Twilight, in response, nodded and turned back to Starscream. “Do we have an accord, Starscream?” “How long is the flight from here to Canterlot?” he asked seemingly randomly. “About a quarter-day flying at top speed,” Rainbow Dash surprisingly answered with an equally surprising amount of calm. Discussing flight was something she enjoyed talking about, he guessed. Slag. Without my wing, I can’t transform, and I can’t fly fast at all in this form. I could get to Canterlot in maybe a day, then, assuming I’m not intercepted. But returning would take too long. I suppose...I suppose I’ll have to play along. “And what of the kill-switch?” She rubbed her chin in thought. “If it’s too inhibiting as it is, I may disable it now. If you can still operate with it on, though, I may keep it on so as to further entice cooperation.” “Devious…” he muttered, raising a leg to test the switch. He felt a sharp jolt of pain run through his nervous sensors, wincing to show his discomfort. “Very well,” Twilight said, taking the hint. “The switch will be disabled if you agree to my presented terms.” Starscream sighed, defeated. “Fine. I’ll do your bidding, but you would do well to put some urgency into your judgment of my behavior. Time is short, and I nor you would want my message to expire.” While he couldn’t shudder, he still felt chills at the thought of Chrysalis and the other changelings dying slow painful deaths at the hands of malnourishment. “Thank you for being civil, Starscream, and for your cooperation,” Twilight said rather proudly as she hovered his sword through the downward staircase and out of sight. “We’ll find a place for that later,” she said. “Now, for the kill-switch.” Her horn flared up with a pink flash, and Starscream could hear his re-broken wound click back into place. “I must warn you now,” she began as Starscream tested a leg again, this time with satisfactory results, “that I will re-engage the kill-switch if you freak out on somepony like you did on Dash here. Also note that you will not be able to take out the switch, as it’s really not a switch; rather, it’s an intentionally placed loose connection point: one little magical tug, and the entire wire assembly detaches.” That leaves me a bit more than completely incapacitated in that case, he mused. “Both Rarity and I know how to engage and disengage it, so don’t think you’re exempt from proper behavior just because I’m not around.” “Rarity does too?” Rainbow questioned, surprised. “That’s cool. She‘s actually associated with him?” Twilight nodded as she returned to her seat at the table, inviting the others join her. Rainbow Dash seated herself next to Twilight while Starscream sat opposite them and Spike went into the kitchen to begin cleaning off the dishes from breakfast. “Actually, Rarity did most of the assembly work for Starscream’s repairs. Starscream already had blueprints drawn up for the wound, so I didn’t even need to do any work figuring out where stuff went, either. Though it strikes me as odd that he’d just so happen to have those papers.” “Breaking that spot’s become a normal occurrence, it would seem,” stated Starscream. “Was it your idea for the kill-switch?” Rainbow queried Twilight. “Nope. That was Rarity, too.” A rather astonished look crossed Rainbow Dash’s face. “So you think of everything, then, huh? I wouldn’t have expected something like that that from her,” she simply said. And then the topic was dropped. There were a few seconds of silence before the two ponies began engaging in some small talk, beginning with Twilight asking if Rainbow was alright. Uninterested in engaging or listening, Starscream set his forelegs on the table and rested his head on them. As the mares talked, he thought back to the Hive; specifically, to Chrysalis. He hoped that his delay hadn’t been costly. In the dark part of his mind, though, he promised himself that ponykind would face his wrath in the case that it was. Across from him, the topic changed again. “So, Dash, what exactly did you come here for in the first place?” Twilight asked, finally getting to the long delayed subject. Dash seemed to have forgotten for a second, herself and put a hoof to her chin in thought for a second until it came back to her. “Um...oh, yeah: for, like, the past month you’ve pretty much just been holed up in here with your freaky science project-” “I’m right here and I heard that!” “-and Fluttershy, being Fluttershy, was concerned. She had a picnic planned today for the six of us. She told me that she invited you the last time you were in the market about a week ago, but said that you didn’t seem to really acknowledge her invitation. So I came to make sure you remembered, and drag you there if necessary.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “First off, it’s only been eighteen days, which is a rather short time to be working on a single project.” “For an egghead like you, maybe,” Dash teased. Another eye roll, but Twilight continued unabated. “Secondly, of course I remembered. I hadn’t expected Starscream to wake up, so I went to bed early to make sure I was rested for the occasion.” “So now that he is awake...what’ll you do with him?” Dash asked, looking to the still uninterested Starscream. Matching Dash’s gaze, Twilight said, “Continue with the plan, of course. When’s a more opportune moment to introduce him to the girls than at such a gathering? I’ll grab the Elements, of course, to be safe, though.” “You know he’ll, like, literally scare Fluttershy to death, right?” “I know that he figuratively will, yes. And if he literally does it, then he’ll be dead himself.” Rainbow glanced to Starscream, then back to Twilight. “You know, maybe it’d be best to hand out the Elements beforehand so that he can’t try anything while not all of us have our Elements on. And I should be going now, anyway, and start preparing my food for the picnic.” “Right,” agreed Twilight. “The case for the Elements is downstairs. Go grab the ones for the other girls and give them to them on your way out. While you’re down there, could you find a hiding spot for Starscream’s sword? I want you to be the only one to know where it is.” With a salute, Rainbow Dash sped downstairs. Starscream sighed. Not even the Autobots had gone through so much trouble to suppress him while he was among them, and he had been actively trying to kill them for millions of years. The fact that his mortal enemies, or at least once mortal enemies, were collectively more trusting of him than these ponies were was exceptionally degrading. Rainbow Dash came back up from downstairs, a collection of gold necklaces somehow clutched in her hoof. “Thanks again, Twilight. See you later,” she said as she fluttered towards the window she had entered through. “Later, Spike!” she yelled to the little dragon who was still behind-the-scenes. “And... see you later, unfortunately, I guess, Starscream,” she muttered nearly imperceptibly quietly as she exited. In addition to hurting himself, sighing seemed to be another habit Starscream had picked up since waking up that first time. He did so again, not for any specific reason, but more so at the culmination of things pressing against him. This message had become a lot of trouble to deliver, and this day was going to be a long one.