Crystal Empire, 1500 Years Ago...
"We do not like this Tirek." proclaimed Luna stiffly as she prepared for bed that night. "His eyes were all over us."
"He was a charming centaur, but I agree. Sombra has hired quite the interesting pony," said Celestia as she slipped on a dress for sleeping. "His voice sent shivers up my spine whenever he spoke."
"We cannot say how natural he is, but there is something decidedly unnatural about the way he gave us looks. Like he speculates us as common bread on a platter!" Luna removed her crown, placing her horseshoes to the side and tying her hair in a ponytail.
"You know, that's all you've been talking about tonight," said Celestia thoughtfully as she started to settle into the guest bed. "Tirek this and Tirek that. You're starting to sound like I was with Discord."
"That is different, and you know it," huffed Luna as she leaped into bed and drew the covers over her head. "We were not taken with him and you know it. Good night to you."
"Good night, Luna." Extinguishing the candles, the princesses went to sleep that night, never knowing that a pair of eyes were upon them.
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Present Day
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, are you saying that Tirek was once a regular Centaur?" demanded Rainbow Dash. "That's unbelievable!"
"Stories have a tendency to get inflated over the amount of times it was told," said Celestia somberly. "We had at that point, no idea that Tirek's heart was as black as Sombra's was to become. Sombra used to be a good pony once, but his power and lust for crystals became too strong. But you all know how that story ended."
"That's where we come in," said Arcee. "It's not known, but before the war our people were explorers. Still are in many ways. One of them came to your world in search of answers before returning to Cybertron."
"He's still with us actually, the guy who technically made first contact with Equestria." said Bumblebee. "He would be here for this, but he's off saving the universe or something with Bulkhead. His name is Wheeljack..."
"Someone call my name?" The group turned to see a silver and green robot leaning easily on the door, and he held up two fingers in a mock salute. "Yo."
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Crystal Kingdom 1500 Years Ago...
Celestia was up early as always, a few minutes before she had to raise the sun. It was on this day that she spotted something if she hadn't paused to take that one sip of coffee before bringing the sun out from the other half of the world: a streaking comet, no, some kind of flaming bird coming down near the plains outside of the kingdom just outside the village of New Hoofingshire. Distracted, she almost forgot to raise the sun until a sleepy voice cut in.
"Tia? Why's it still dark?"
"Oh, right." Celestia quickly rose the sun and threw off her bathrobe. "Luna, I'm going out, tell Sombra I'll have to decline breakfast for the time being."
"But Tia, where are you going? You need food!" exclaimed Luna, sitting up in bed.
"I'll just have a muffin!" And she levitated a bran muffin out of the bowl and charged out the door, all finery forgotten.
"... But you hate bran muffins."
Charging out the door and taking wing, Celestia pushed herself as far as she could go, zooming across the landscape and quickly clearing the outskirts of the main city. The landscape passed under her as the village came closer. The villagers were keeping their distance away from the object that landed and she could see why.
It was a rubbed-black bird, about twenty times her own size and smoking, hissing steam and smelling of the heat of entry from space. It looked like it had been in some kind of battle, or perhaps had some kind of trouble as the back appeared to sport engines of some kind, not dissimilar to things she had seen from attempts at self-propelled Gryphon war machines.
The back however slowly began to open up and Celestia stood her ground. Or as firmly as she could from behind a tree as she watched a giant step out. He was huge, at least three times her height and she was tall for a pony. He was bipedal, like an ape or a dragon, and his limbs ended in claws. He had no mouth, but then, suddenly a plate slid aside recessing into somewhere as he coughed loudly. "Slag, what a landing," he muttered loudly, and in a language she could understand. "The Jackhammer's not going anywhere at this rate..."
Checking what he called the Jackhammer over critically, he groaned. "I'm going to need to repair it. And looks like I'm out in the boondocks again. Hello, what's this?"
Leaning down, he pulled free a crystal, one she recognized from the empire's mining facilities. The giant howled in delight. "Well what do you know? You hit the jackpot, Jackie old boy, because you just landed on an Energon mine!"
His mirth subsided quickly however as he started to dig a little more and frowned, pulling out precious gemstones and chunks of Energon with his bare hands. "Too rich though... this place is way too rich with Energon. If the whole planet is like this, able to dig up precious gemstones and Energon in the same go... think of the damage the Cons could do strip-mining this planet."
Celestia gasped, a little too loudly at the implications. Strip mine HER planet?!
Wheeljack spun, aiming his gun at her hiding spot and paused, the deathly whine of the blaster powering down. Retracting his weapon, he held out his hand. "Hey, it's okay little guy I won't hurt ya. I'm only a bad guy to the 'Cons."
Celestia flushed as she stepped out and tossed her unruly mane, for she hadn't brushed her hair at all. "The proper term is Princess. Princess Celestia."
"... Riiiiight, Princess," deadpanned Jackie at the messy looking alicorn who slowly took a serious bite of her bran muffin.
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Present Day
"That seriously happened," deadpanned Arcee, looking at Wheeljack, who had this wide grin on his face.
"What can I say? Alicorn who looked like she just crawled out of bed demands to be called Princess with hair that had seen better days? I thought she was pulling my chassis," replied Wheeljack. "Though at the time, I was even more of an insufferable ass than usual."
"Wheeljack has his rough edges, but his scepticism was highly noted to be... rather accurate. Luna and I were very new to running the kingdom after all," admitted Celestia, a faint tinge of red in her cheeks.
"Moving on," Celestia added quickly, "Once the awkward explanations were out of the way, such as where Wheeljack was and who we were, that's when things quickly started to go south..."
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Crystal Empire 1500 Years Ago.....
"I dunno about this, Celly, I gotta say walking in here makes me feel like I'm going to break something." said Wheeljack as Celestia lead him towards the Crystal Empire's gates. "It looks like glass in there and Wreckers never work well with glass houses, if you get my drift."
"That's Celestia, and it is perfectly safe. We're not going to be breaking everything just by stepping on it. That would be foalish," retorted Celestia, gritting her teeth. In the few short minutes to a half hour that she had met Wheeljack, she could honestly say that he was by far the most aggravating. Was she receiving punishment from Faust or something? Was she to be eternally saddled with misfortune with not-ponies similar to Discord?
"You know I could just dig up a bunch of Energon, a few rubies and cut those into converters for the Jackhammer and be out of your hair. I don't see why I gotta met this Sombra guy of yours for permission," snorted Wheeljack. "Never been much for the whole chain of command thing anyhow."
"You are still on the Empire's soil, and a guest, and it would be remiss to be digging up the countryside for your Enetron." snapped Celestia, her patience wearing thin.
"Energon, Princess Sun-butt."
She glared daggers at him. "What was that?"
"Just calling it as I see it, or is that a tattoo you got in a rebellious phase?"
Celestia almost let loose with a furious scream of rage if it weren't for the timely intervention of a polite cough and a statement of "We had not been aware you were bringing company back to the castle, sister."
Oh thank Faust, it was Luna. Luna would see her through this madness. She would... just stand there looking really, really amused at the whole thing. Curse you, Luna.
"So this is your sister? Hey, I'm Wheeljack." said Wheeljack with a wave of his massive hand.
"Princess Luna. We greet you, metal-not-pony from the stars." said Luna with a courteous bow.
"Hah, see? That's totally princess stuff. You could learn from that, Sunny."
"Wheeljack, I swear by the Heart I will send you into the sun," growled Celestia under her breath.
"Sorry, I've got a allergy to solar flares," laughed Wheeljack. But then he grew serious as he shifted in stance. "Though, I don't think we're in any position to argue."
Turning around, Luna blinked at the appearance of the Empire's Guard, but these were dressed in the dark blacks and violets of the personal guard. "Can we help you?"
The lead commander raised his spear, his crystalline coat gleaming in the morning sun. "Princess Celestia, please step away from the stranger from the stars. He is the one we've been warned about."
"Come again?" asked Celestia. "What do you want with Wheeljack?"
"The steel ones will descend from the skies, and rain fire and brimstone upon this world. A chariot of darkness will herald eternal night, it's messenger bearing the form of man. He has seen it. Our Prince." The Guardsman looked at the Princesses apologetically as one moved to pull Celestia aside.
"A prophesy of destruction, of eternal night.... while eternal night isn't bad, there has to be balance," murmured Luna as the guards pointed their spears at Wheeljack.
"Told you this was a bad idea, Your Highness," grumbled Wheeljack. "So, now what?"
"Stand down, guards, his ship malfunctioned and he landed safely. He does not bring any danger to our world. All we ask of the Prince is permission to mine the needed crystals and he will be off our world within the next sunrise. Isn't that right, Wheeljack?"
"Got a bad feeling bout this," grumbled Wheeljack but he nodded. "That's right, ponies, your friendly neighborhood Wheeljack will just grab and go. No tricks, just lemme dig some Energon and I'll be out of here before you know it."
"All Energon is possession of the Crystal Empire, surely you know that," came that damnedly silky voice as the ponies turned and saluted. Luna bristled but stepped back as Tirek strode forward confidently. "Come now, what do you believe our mining operations are for, Princess? We discovered this power source ages ago, and our best scientists are working around the clock deciphering its secrets. For the good of pony kind, of course."
"Of course," said Celestia, knowing a smooth pass-over when she saw it. Tirek was covering, but for who? Himself? Or the Prince? At this point, it was hard to say. "But as you are well aware, the Old Canterlot Charter clearly states we must share our advances with one another."
"Of course, which is why I had a shipment sent to your people, oh I mean, ponies, a week ago before you arrived. My word, it is so hard to keep these pronouns straight. How do you do it? Everybody, everypony, it is quite difficult when faced with such a difference in culture." replied Tirek smoothly. "Guards, the metal-man has no intention of harming us. We can leave him be. Come along, our talks await, my Princesses."
As they turned to leave, Wheeljack spoke up. "Hey, curious. What color are the Energon crystals anyhow?'
"Why violet of course, the most lustrous shade," answered Tirek. "I will send some to you right away."
"Yeah... you do that." And with that, Wheeljack stepped away, seemingly lost in thought.
=====
Present Day
"That's when everything I knew then was wrong," said Wheeljack, sipping a cup of blue Energon from a cube. "Dark Energon."
"What's Dark Energon?" asked Twilight, having hung onto every word of this story, for as long as it was taking.
"Dark Energon is a substance known as the Blood of Unicron," replied Lyra and she was met by varying degrees of disgust and shock. "It's in a way, metaphorically and literally real blood and it's not, since Cybertronians all have it."
"When I heard that there was Dark Energon on this planet, one that was already insanely rich with regular Energon, that threw up alarm bells in my head," said Wheeljack. "So I contacted Optimus, but it would be a long time before my message would get to him."
"Sombra, as it turns out had run into a seam of Dark Energon, and was mining it out of the earth at an alarming rate. But while that tale ended tragically, the worst was yet to present itself," said Celestia.
"Tirek, right?" said Twilight and the others nodded. Celestia sighed.
"I was young, and unaware of Tirek's manipulations and how deep it would go. The dinner went smoothly, but as the sun went down that night, my worries compounded when I saw him leave on a chariot pulled by flying monsters I had not seen before," said Celestia.
To Be Continued...
