//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15 
// Story: Transformers: Harmony 
// by megatron_91 
//------------------------------//

Transformers: Harmony
Chapter 15 
By: Megatron_91

The loud, thunderous noises of jet engines screamed down from the atmosphere as the Decepticons launched their attack on the crystalline city below. 

Laser fire erupted from the sky, peppering the ground as dozens of flight-class Vehicons flanked the four primary Decepticons leading the charge: Megatron, Starscream, Blackout, and Incinerator. The drones swooped and swerved through the air as they came closer and closer to the bricklayer streets below. As they did so, Megatron banked towards his left and took point of the formation. A massive bolt of fusion energy burst from his top-mounted cannon and struck hard against the earth, scattering the three Autobots and the equestrians surrounding them. 

Thinking fast, and fueled purely by the Cybertronian equivalent of adrenaline, Prowl rolled through the nearby trees and released his cargo, allowing the three unicorns and pegasus to safely drop from his grasp to the soil beneath him. Without taking the time to check himself for damage, the Autobot strategist reached into his subspace and whipped out his silver, handheld rifle. Prowl had always preferred the older, handheld weapons to the newer, built-in ones like Bumblebee’s battle pistol; there was something about actually feeling oneself squeeze the trigger that he liked. He closed one eye and took aim at a fast approaching drone that was far too close to the ground. He fired off a round from the muzzle of his barrel. 

The acid pellet struck home against the Decepticon’s left engine and instantly began to eat through it. Within moments, the corrosive material had bored a hole through the armor plating and began to destroy the internal structure of the engine, sending the Vehicon into a careening tailspin. Prowl watched as the drone flew by overhead, catching fire before crashing into the ground nearby. Suddenly the Autobot’s sensory net began screaming warnings as a second Vehicon approached. This one, in robot mode, tackled Prowl from behind, forcing him to drop his gun and grapple with his attacker. The black-and-white robot desperately fought to prevent the drone from getting a clear shot at his head with its wrist mounted pistol.

“Prowl!!” Twilight shouted as she watched the Autobot struggle against the assailing Decepticon.

Rushing forward across the waving, green grass of the Crystal Empire’s central park, she instinctively ignited the horn on her head. To her surprise, the familiar red aura of her personal magic surrounded the flailing Vehicon and lifted it off Prowl and into the air. Her magic was working against the Decepticons! With a mighty burst of energy, Twilight sent the purple-and-silver robot in her grasp flying backwards into another pair of Vehicons that had just transformed and landed to continue the fight. All three of them collapsed to the floor upon contact.

“Prowl! Are you okay?” Twilight asked as she galloped up to the Autobot officer. Behind her, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and her brother were following closely behind. They had each recovered from the Decepticon’s first strike without taking any damage. 

Prowl hauled himself up onto his feet and grabbed his head to slow the spinning world around him. “I’m fine, they got the drop on me that’s all,” he explained. “We have to get moving and fight back.” He explained. “Rainbow Dash, we’ll need all of you together once Wheeljack gets here with Prime and the Elements, go make sure Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack managed to escape the initial attack safely.”

He paused and watched as the cyan pegasus saluted before flying off into the now fire-and-flak filled skies. The city outside the park was already beginning to crumble under the weight of Megatron’s attack.

“Twilight, Rarity, and Shining Armor,” he resumed, addressing each unicorn before him by name. “Your magic makes you the most suited for dealing with the Decepticons; Twilight focus on using your magic as a weapon, get creative; Rarity, I don’t know if the information will be useful, but seeing as your Cutie Mark is a set of diamonds, you should know that the central processors of Vehicon drones are powered by Korlonium Crystals; Shining Armor, can you multitask?” he asked, turning his full attention to the older stallion of the group while Twilight and Rarity darted off, following the faint, multi-colored trail left behind by Rainbow Dash. The blue haired unicorn nodded his head. “Good,” Prowl reached into his subspace again and withdrew a small, red-and-silver, flat-topped pistol. He threw it on the ground in front of the amazed unicorn. “It’s time for you to use a real weapon and not a stick with rock tied to it.”

As a demonstration, the Autobot’s second-in-command quickly turned back towards the three drones Twilight had knocked to the ground moments before. They were just starting to get back up when he fired an acid pellet into the center trooper. Acid exploded against its chest as it let out a pained shriek; the corrosive material splashed against its flanking companions and soon their armor began to evaporate as well. Thank Primus these aren’t the more advanced models Prime mentioned running into in the desert, Prowl thought to himself.

As he watched the three Decepticons reduce to a puddle of slag, the smell of sulfur and smoke began to waft into Prowl’s olfactory sensors. Turning around his mouth dropped as he came to the realization that the entire park was beginning to catch fire. The Decepticon artillery coming from the sky was rapidly demolishing the city and the parks were now being set ablaze. The time had come for him to stop holding back. A pair of large, wire-guided, missiles emerged from his back and mounted over each of his shoulders. He took aim and launched the left missile directly into a large group of flying Decepticons. The resulting explosion was massive in size and incinerated most of the aerial combatants within its range. Anything or anyone that hadn’t been instantly destroyed in the fiery explosion tumbled to the ground below.

Satisfied, Prowl turned his attention elsewhere and rejoined the raging battle in the park.


………


Twilight darted left and right as she weaved through Decepticon weapons fire. She was desperate to escape the merciless onslaught that was quickly engulfing the world around her. Thinking quickly, she dove into the deeper woods that ringed the park, hoping to find protection between the tightly packed trees. The lavender unicorn was desperately trying to follow the rainbow-colored trail left in the air behind Rainbow Dash. She hoped it was leading her to the rest of her friends, but the thick canopy of the trees was making it difficult to see the sky, let alone the cyan pegasus that was zipping through them.

Next to her, Rarity was struggling to keep pace. The woods had already begun to catch fire and the smog and heat being emitted from the flaming trees was starting to cloud their vision and choke their lungs. Suddenly, a massive Oak collapsed from under its burning trunk and fell right in front of the two running unicorns, effectively blocking their path. Things were not going well for the pair.

Very soon, they began to hear the iconic sound of transforming Cybertronians filling the smoke around them. Twilight ignited her horn and Rarity stamped the ground behind her; they were ready to take on whatever was hiding in the suffocating clouds. Unexpectedly, and much to their dismay, twelve, jet-class Vehicons emerged from the black smog and surrounded them. They raised their weapons and took aim at the two trapped unicorns; their wrist mounted cannons hummed to life as they readied to open fire. 

Twilight glanced nervously over her shoulder at Rarity, but the white-coated unicorn only gave her a confident nod in response. Hoping that she and Rarity were thinking along the same lines, Twilight returned the nod and began mentally preparing herself. As the Decepticons took a step forward to fire, the lavender unicorn unleashed a flash of magic and teleported herself and Rarity outside the circle of Vehicons.

Startled by the sudden burst of energy, the Decepticons opened fire. Their directionless blasts only managed to hit the barren ground between them and each other. Two of the twelve were instantly downed by headshots from the other’s respective weapons.
Turning around and not giving the Vehicons time to recover, Twilight grabbed the Decepticon soldier she was standing behind with her magic. She wasted no time in using its flailing body to her advantage, knocking the remaining Vehhicons to the ground as she swung it through the air like a ram. She continued to hold the helpless drone as the remaining troops scrambled to their feet and returned fire. Their plasma bolts only succeeded in filling their fellow Vehicon’s body with holes and pockmarks. Swinging her head, Twilight flung the now dead Decepticon into another three of his comrades; she quickly threw up a protective shield as the damaged drone detonated upon contact with the other Vehicons. The small explosion made short work of the three, living soldiers caught in the blast. 

Not too far from the triumphant Twilight, Rarity leapt out of the way as another soldier, this one a bit dimmer than the others, attempted to crush her with its fists rather than just destroy her with a weapon. She gracefully sidestepped and jumped over the drone’s fist as he brought it crashing down on the ground again. Their game of leapfrog continued like this for several seconds until another pair of drones joined them. She frowned as these two were smart enough to draw their weapons on her. Realizing things were about to get dangerous, Rarity ignited the horn on her head. She remembered the little amount of information Prowl had given her about how the Vehicons worked and cast a powerful, gem gathering spell she had learned during one of her many trips to Canterlot.

Suddenly, the three drones’ heads were surrounded by the blue glow Rarity’s magic and began to shake violently. The sound of tearing metal and sparking wires filled the white unicorn’s ears; the Korlonium Crystals that drove the soldier’s processors ripped through the tops of their metal skulls and flew over to her. The three Decepticons dropped brain-dead to the ground while Rarity cooed at the strange, alien diamonds that now hovered in front of her face.

Now only three of the original twelve drones remained and Twilight was rushing to get rid of them. She grabbed the firing arm of the nearest Vehicon and used her magic to tear it clean out of the socket. The confused drone looked down at his now curiously vacant shoulder joint before being gunned down by the unicorn controlled weapon. Smiling to herself, the lavender unicorn decided it was time to end the little skirmish she and her friend were caught in. She turned the shooting arm against the last two Decepticons. Plasma bolts ripped apart the Vehicons’ weak armor in a matter of seconds, making quick work of their internals as they went. Twilight threw the arm against a nearby tree and let out an exasperated sigh of relief.

“That was splendid, Twilight!” Rarity exclaimed as she pranced over to her fellow unicorn. The alien crystals still hovered around behind her head. “And here you were worried your magic wouldn’t have any effect on the Decepticons.”

Twilight smiled at her friend’s compliment. “Yeah, I just hope it works as well on the bigger ones as it does on these drones.”
“Oh, you’ll be fine dear, like Rainbow said you were tired when we ran into Incinerator the first time,” she remarked, referring back to their first meeting with the Autobots that seemed so long ago. “Now, we need to catch up with her and find everyone.”

Twilight nodded in agreement and the two unicorns jumped over the fallen tree and headed deeper into the forest, hoping it would eventually lead out into the city proper.


………


High above the burning city, Megatron streaked through the smoky skies, traveling at a speed faster than he ever had before. His vehicle mode reflected the fires from below, giving it an almost demonic shape. He continued to take potshots at the mongrel beasts inhabiting the city when he could catch a glimpse of them through the thick, dark smoke. Starscream suddenly appeared next to him, the seeker’s propellers were clocking in overtime in order to keep up with the jet-powered, Decepticon leader.

“My Lord, we have scattered the Autobots across the city and have begun the destruction of anything that may serve as some form of defense,” the Air Commander reported as he flew up alongside Megatron. “Perhaps it would be wise to begin our own search for the Matrix. The Autobots seemed to be doing something outside the city’s library; perhaps it is a clue,” he suggested as he opened fire with his dual machine guns on the ground below. He thought he had caught a glimpse of the Autobot scout.

“I will concern myself with the Matrix, Starscream,” the silver tyrant growled. “You will continue to lead the attack on the Autobots.” Megatron gave his order before banking to the left and turning in the direction of the large, crystalline library.

“As you command, Megatron,” Starscream hissed as he flipped in the air and returned to the stage of battle.


………



“Please! Everypony calm down and form an orderly evacuation!!” Princess Cadence yelled. She desperately flew up into the air in an attempt to gain the masses attention. 

All around the princess, frantic, crystal ponies ran in panic and fear as hellfire rained down from the skies and buildings crumbled around them. The entire street was clogged with the frightened citizens of the Crystal Empire as they scrambled over each other, trying to find safety. Fires were burning in the ravaged streets and the air was filled with toxic smog and debris. The entirety of the Crystal Empire had been transformed into a war zone within a matter of minutes. The pink Alicorn was desperately trying to evacuate her citizens to a safe distance outside the city; she was trying to give them a chance to survive the madness. Twilight neglected to mention she was bringing an entire war with her when she brought the Autobots here.

Cadence screamed as a group of drone fighters flew by overhead, releasing a horrible sonic-boom that shattered the large apartment building behind her. She clasped her hooves over her ears, making her unaware as massive shards of razor-sharp crystal began plummeting to the ground below. They would have landed right on top of her were it not for the sudden appearance of Ratchet. Before any of the lethal remains of the building could so much as graze the startled princess’s body, he had thrown himself over her, creating a makeshift shelter. The shards struck across the Autobot’s back making him howl in pain. 

“Princess, you must fall back! It is no longer safe for you here!” Ratchet groaned as he straightened himself back out. Whatever parts of the building weren’t lodged in his back fell to the streets below, adding to the mess. Every street as far as the Autobot could see had either been bombed or torn apart by weapons fire. Piles of crumbled brick and twisted iron littered the roads.    

Cadence spun around in midair and looked at the medic with a face of rage. “I will not leave my people when they need me the most, machine!” she exclaimed. “These ponies trust me as their princess and I will not let them down!” As she said this, she fired off a powerful beam of pink magic from the tip of her horn and devastated one of the flying Decepticons that had dared to try and make a second pass on the crowded street. Its remains exploded and rained down from the skies.

Ratchet was just about to apologize when he heard a distant cry for help. Looking in the direction of the frantic plea, he used an optical mod to zoom in on a small, grey-coated, pegasus colt a couple dozen yards up the street. Tears were streaming down the young colt’s face as he looked at a large fallen tree. Trapped beneath the mighty lumber, the Autobot medic could just make out the shape of a larger mare. A Vehicon drone transformed and landed right in front of the pair. Instantly, Ratchet took off running in the direction of the colt, leaving Cadence alone to tend to her retreating population. 


………


“Mommy!” the pegasus colt cried as the Vehicon drew closer. 

The small pony yelped with fright as the massive Decepticon transformed its arm into a long-barreled weapon. The young colt gathered his courage and bravely stood in front of his trapped mother in what would be a vain attempt to protect her. He flared his tiny wings outward in hopes of scaring away the robot; tears were running down his face. 
The drone wasn’t even phased. 

From under the fallen tree, the mother desperately tried to free herself. She had to save her child, but her back left leg was trapped. As the massive alien looked down at her with its red, glowing visor it raised its weapon into firing position. She cried for her son to run, to save himself, but the little colt refused to leave his mother’s side. The Vehicon’s weapon began to hum and she closed her eyes, drawing her son close, holding him. She had a pretty good idea about what was going to happen.

“Not while I still function, Decepticon!!”

The air suddenly filled with the sound of the Vehicon shrieking in pain. The mother opened her eyes to see another robot attacking the first, using what looked like a large saw-blade attached to its right arm to cut through their attacker’s head and chest. Sparks and metal shavings flew in all directions as the new robot made quick work of the first one.

“Are you alright?” Ratchet asked as the Vehicon dropped dead to the broken street below. He retracted his saw and made his way over to the tree.

Before the mother could protest, or tell her son to run again, Ratchet knelt by her side and clasped the trunk of the fallen tree with his large, metal hand. With a mighty heave, the Autobot medic ripped the tree off of her and threw it into a distant part of the city. Below him the young, grey-coated colt gawked in fascination at this much nicer robot.

“Can you walk?” the medic asked as he scanned the mare’s hind leg. It appeared to be sprained; he hadn’t had the time to become well versed in Equestrian medicine, but he hoped a sprain was not lethal to their kind. He sighed a sigh of relief as he watched the mother pegasus stand up as her son ran over to hug her. A warm smile spread over his face as they thanked him.

But, Ratchet’s smile was quick to disappear as his early warning sensors began to scream to high alert. Turning in the direction they were indicating, he could see the massive, cobalt form of Blackout emerge from behind the corner of a half-destroyed building farther up the road. The Decepticon looked to have already sustained a large amount of damage. A lot of armor along the left side of his body, especially on his arm, looked to have been blown off. He was missing the two metal pylons that were usually found on his back. Numerous other scars and torn metal ran throughout his body. It looked like the Megatron loyalist had barely survived a massive explosion. He smiled a dark smile as he caught sight of the Autobot medic in the distance.

“GO! RUN!” Ratchet shouted down to the two pegasi he had just saved. “Blackout is not a foe to be taken lightly! If you stay, you will only end up hurt or worse!” The pair followed their new hero’s instructions and bolted off in the direction where Cadence was leading the evacuations.

Ratchet turned his attention back towards the approaching threat and began transforming his arm into its weapon mode. Panels folded over onto his outstretched arm as his hand retracted into his wrist. A large number of iron protrusions emerged from the underside of his arm and wrapped around the top, combining with the folding panels to form a rough, blocky shape. The shape itself suddenly unfolded a brace at both the front and back, and opened up, allowing a small, blunt barrel to slide forward. The Autobot medic opened fire with his mini-machine-gun, striking the Decepticon warrior in the chest.

Blackout wasn’t fazed by the doctor’s attack in the slightest and the much larger Decepticon began charging forwards, leading with his right elbow so that Ratchet’s rounds would easily bounce off the thick armor on that side. As he bounded towards the medic, Blackout began to change tactics and began winding his body to the side slightly. With a mighty blow, that the Autobot had not anticipated, the Decepticon unleashed his tightly wound back arm and slammed it against his opponent’s chest, shattering the glass that was held there, and knocking him to the ground.

Ratchet desperately scrambled to get off the broken street, but Blackout was too fast. The Decepticon grabbed him by the neck before lifting him into the air. “The Autobot’s medic,” the cobalt Cybertronian growled as a puff of hot air escaped his lips. “The only way to truly bring death to all Autobots is to make sure there’s no one to put them back together again!”

Before the medic could fight his way free, Blackout dropped him slightly and clasped his enormous, clawed hand around the red Autobot’s head. The airship-Con slammed Ratchet into one of the still standing, brick buildings, pushing his head as far into the structure as possible without breaking it off. Ratchet began to scream as the sadistic Decepticon began crushing his skull between his fingers and palm. Sparks and the sounds of stressing metal filled the hole Blackout had trapped him in and the Decepticon began to laugh.

Fighting to stay alive, Ratchet continued to struggle. He couldn’t see what was happening around him anymore but he began to kick outwards anyway, hoping that, by chance, he could strike his opponent and knock him backwards. He could feel the structure of his head beginning to collapse as more and more pressure was applied to it. He had to escape before it was too late. Suddenly, and much to the medic’s surprise, Blackout began to howl in pain and released his grip from around Ratchet’s head. Unsupported by the Decepticon holding him there, the red-and-white Autobot quickly fell out of the hole and plummeted back down to the shattered streets below. 

His optics were the first part of his, now damaged, head to reactivate. As soon as he could see and register that he was, in fact, still alive, Ratchet instantly began running diagnostics to make sure the larger Decepticon hadn’t destroyed any vital components. Looking up from the pile of bricks and rebar he had landed in, he caught sight of his savior in the not too far off distance.

Princess Cadence was flying in circles around Blackout, firing extremely powerful bolts of energy at him. The Decepticon was making clumsy attempts to swat her out of the air but he was no match for her grace and agility. As soon as his diagnostics checked out, Ratchet deployed his hand saw and charged forwards. It was now his turn to take a strike at the Decepticon. 

A shower of curling bits of metal and sparks rained outwards as Ratchet brought his saw down and cleaved through the Decepticon’s weaker left, arm. Blackout howled in pain as the smaller Autobot next ran the saw against his face and followed up with a powerful kick to his chest that made him stumble backwards into a large pile of crystal debris.

“Glad to see you’re okay,” Cadence said as she drifted down next to the larger Autobot’s head. “I thought he had you for sure.”

“He would have if you hadn’t interfered. I apologize for doubting your strength and telling you to retreat,” he replied.

“Don’t worry about it.” She smiled. “So are we gonna have to work together to bring this guy down or what?”

Ratchet watched as Blackout rose up from the rubble and turned to face them again. The Autobot medic revved his saw in response to the challenge. “It would appear that that would be the case, Princess Cadence.”


……….


Megatron transformed and landed outside the entrance to the great, crystal library. He quietly walked around the broken streets, looking for any sign of what the Autobots had been doing before he launched his attack. In the background he could hear the screams of Equestrians crying out as his soldiers continued their decimation of the city. It made him smile.

Finally he found something small and cylindrical buried amongst the shattered bricks that littered the street in front of him. Leaning down he recognized it as a damaged, and no longer functional, det-pack. So, he thought to himself. That’s their game is it? They were going to blow a hole through the street to somewhere, or something, down below. Perhaps they had found the Matrix’s location after all.

“Well, two can play at this game,” he growled to himself.

The Fusion Cannon mounted on his right arm began to change shape slightly as the barrel narrowed and the back-end began to extend and open up, revealing a series of purple, glowing tubes, spinning in a carousel-like cage. Finally the carousel of tubes stopped spinning and settled on a small, red one. The top suddenly plunged back down and Megatron’s fusion cannon began to hum with a strange, reverberant sound. A continuous beam of red energy began to fire out of the cannon’s thinner barrel and started melting through the street in front of him. It wouldn’t take long now to open the road and find out where the Autobot’s had been intending to go.

And then, the Matrix would be his…