Chapter Thirty: Lone Sparks
Published March 2nd, 2014
Another mistake.
Dark Lance slowly walked through the Everfree, lost in his thoughts.
Another failure.
Behind him, Ponyville quickly disappeared behind the brush, the Cutie Mark Crusaders having been returned home.
Another teammate in critical condition. Because of me. If I hadn't called Firefall to investigate that last pod, Wingshift wouldn't have been beaten like that. He would have had assistance. Another set of eyes to keep his opponent's position known, if nothing else. But no. I insisted on her presence at an empty pod, and now Wingshift is paying for it.
He suddenly transformed, and punched a nearby tree in frustration.
Slag it all! What kind of leader am I!? What kind of leader allows this sort of thing to happen to his subordinates on such a regular basis?! He leaned against the tree as a quiet, sinister voice answered him from the back of his mind.
The kind that doesn't need a team.
He immediately snapped back to attention, instantly trying to push the voice back into the dark recesses it came from.
That's not very nice. After all, if not for me, you'd have rusted away on some random planet long ago. And you know it. Dark Lance scowled, already in a bad mood and not needing another problem.
Go away. You're the last thing I need right now.
On the contrary. I'm exactly what you need right now. I can solve all your problems in a matter of minutes. All you have to do is let me out. Dark Lance snarled.
Not a chance. I'm not about to let you run amok on this world, and amongst my team, just to make my life a little easier. The voice sighed, the disappointment readily apparent inside Dark Lance's consciousness.
Why are you always so hostile towards me? I try my best to help, and you always refuse so rudely. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't even be where you are today!
Maybe that's not such a bad thing.
... Fine. Have it your way. But sooner or later, you're going to need me enough to let me out. And we both know it. The voice faded back into Dark Lance's subconscious, and he returned to his beast mode and headed back to the Star Runner.
When he returned, he immediately went to the med-lab to check on Wingshift's status. Burnout had locked herself inside to prevent anyone from distracting her, forcing Bunker to remain outside while he watched. Dark Lance joined him, watching as the medic worked at one of the remote control stations to modify Wingshift's arm without removing him from the stasis field that currently kept him alive.
"How bad is he?" Bunker sighed.
"He was too damaged for her to repair normally. She's already started the reformat process, but by her estimate, it'll be at least a couple days before he's ready to reactivate, assuming that everything goes well. Which it probably won't, all things considered."
"So how long will it actually be?"
"At least a week. I've already told her that I'm not going to let her skip her recharge cycles."
"Good. What about the rest?"
"I sent Skybreaker and Detpack to start repairs on the port engines, and Firefall went with Crackshot to take care of the starboard ones. They should be done with the major components within two or three days."
"Energon reserves?"
"I managed to get the mini-miners up and running before Fireburst's little stunt, so we should be fine there."
"What about the defense systems?"
"Undamaged, calibrated, and active. I reprogrammed them to only begin firing if a Decepticon energy signature is detected, though. Otherwise, they just set off the alarms."
"What about the main control systems?"
"The nano-repair system took care of all that days ago. I checked it all myself. No discrepancies."
"Prison block damage?"
"Mostly to the entrance. The cell doors themselves are still functional, but the control panel is fried. I'll need to work on it myself, too. It's too advanced for the nano-repair."
"Anyone said anything about this yet?"
"No, but Firefall can't hide her emotions for scrap, and the other two aren't confident enough yet to go against your orders."
"I kind of wish they were...." Bunker tore his gaze away from the work being performed beyond the glass, and turned to Dark Lance.
"Sir." Dark Lance gave him a curious look. "No one here is questioning your skill. I talked to Firefall earlier about what she said to you."
"Oh?"
"She wasn't expressly trying to insult you. She's just more... blunt, I suppose, than you typically are. She prefers the direct approach to a given situation. The fact that you didn't activate Crackshot earlier simply surprised her, and given her personality, it isn't entirely surprising she didn't think about her wording before she said something about it." Dark Lance straightened, and moved past Bunker as he answered.
"Thank you for trying, but you know that isn't the problem." Bunker nearly followed Dark Lance down the hall to try and console him more effectively, but he remained where he was, knowing that following his commander wouldn't do any good at this point. He needed someone else's assurance if he was to regain his confidence.
The dawn came quietly, all the members of the Autobot team having been awake all night, and no major disasters seeming to have occurred by the Decepticons' actions. Dark Lance remained in the comms room, attempting to reestablish contact with Teletraan-1, or find out what happened from one of the other units, until midday, when the proximity alert sounded. He quickly made his way to the bridge, and activated the holo-table to see the outside of the ship. Outside, there were two ponies he didn't recognize: a green unicorn, who was bouncing in place with obvious excitement, and a pale earth pony with a pink-and-blue mane, who was gaping in shock.
"SKYBREAKER!" He didn't need to ask to know who had brought them here. This would be the fourth time Skybreaker had revealed himself, on purpose or by accident, to natives of a planet. Said scout was in the room in short order, and stared at the screen for a moment before slapping himself in the face.
"Oh. Right. That." Dark Lance raised an eyebrow at him. "I may have not been paying enough attention when I activated Crackshot, and I may have been seen by a really curious unicorn. And then promised to tell her all about us as long as she didn't tell anyone else about us and left right then so she didn't get hurt." Dark Lance considered reprimanding the scout, but decided it wasn't worth it.
"Just deal with it." Skybreaker nodded, transformed, and quickly left as Lance shut off the holo-table and returned to his work.
----------------------------------------
Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest, Bloodwing stood on the bridge of the Darksword, having just finished listening to his latest subordinates introduce themselves.
"So, an actual soldier and an Energon carrier. Excellent. Before we start making any more plans, though, there are still a few things we need to know more about. Fireburst, you, Crosswire, and Harvester will head north. The Autobots probably already know what caused that Energon wave, and I don't like it when they have information that we don't."
"Yes, sir."
"Sharpedge, you will stay here and guard the ship. Fangcrusher will be coming with me to pay a visit to our changeling friends."
"Yes, sir."
And with that, they left the ship. Fireburst, Harvester, and Crosswire went north while Bloodwing took Fangcrusher south, into the badlands. Undetected by the Decepticons, however, were Frill and Buzz, having just arrived in the Everfree, and now safe from sight in the thick brush. The two changelings quickly moved through the forest, following the smell of the artificial love that the Decepticons could make simply by being exposed to crystals. It wasn't the Decepticons they were looking for, though. Instead, when they reached their destination they came upon a large white ship, half-buried in the ground. They waited a few moments, and the main hatch opened, revealing Dark Lance with his left arm transformed and ready to fire, and his lance ready to strike in his right hand.
"State your business." Frill stepped forward, and cleared his throat.
"Ahem. Our leader, Queen Chrysalis, would like to make an alliance with you. It has become apparent to her that our current alliance with your foes was a mistake, and will cost us much more than we believe is worth losing for what little we need them for. Additionally, we have lost more members of our hive to their actions, directly, than to any other source since their arrival. The Queen initially believed that aiding them would be beneficial to us as well, and once our mutual goals were achieved, our hive would return to its previous autonomy. It has become obvious since then that this will not be the case." Dark Lance gave a derisive snort.
"Really? I can't imagine why." Frill swallowed his pride at the sarcastic remark, and continued.
"In any case, we now wish to assist you, instead. We have already collected a small stockpile of the crystals you use, at Bloodwing 's order, and we are capable of extracting the cause of 'stasis lock', as you call it, from your bodies. In return, we ask that you protect us from Decepticon retribution, should they find out about our betrayal before we are ready, and perhaps assist us in repairing relations with the ponies in the future."
"Why would you need to repair relations with them?" The changeling fidgeted in place slightly.
"Our queen has been... unwell, in recent years. Our agents began having more trouble bringing back love for the hive, and so she started cutting down her own shares for the rest of us. But we continued having difficulty, and our stores began to thin. And after Discord's escape, fear and unease became regular appearances in the emotions of the ponies, and our hive began to starve. A few months ago, our queen's mental health began to deteriorate. It came to a head a few weeks ago, when she attempted to overthrow Celestia and take over. We mounted a full-scale invasion of Canterlot in an attempt to capture several ponies and use artificial means of extracting love from them, but it failed. And now, with the ponies alerted to our presence, we have nothing left but starvation. Unless you help us." Dark Lance narrowed his optics in concentration. On one hand, what they had attempted to do was atrocious, to use another living thing as a battery. On the other, they seemed to be genuinely regretful of the action, and had no intention of trying again. And to simply condemn them to die would go against everything the Autobots stood for.
"Fine, we'll help you relocate to a safer position, but only on two conditions." Frill straightened himself in anticipation.
"Yes? What do you require?"
"First, Celestia and Luna will be informed, and you will do as they require for you to stay."
"I believe we can work that out with them sufficiently."
"Second, I wish to speak to your queen myself."
"That can be arranged."