Cutie Mark Crusader Transformers! YAY
Start Up Your Engine Final:
The Enemy Strikes
What in the All-Spark am I seeing? Steel thought in fright.
The robotic life-form thought that he was staring at the clumsy farm help that was fired shortly before he made himself known to Apples, only to change into an exact copy of his pony form right before his eyes. It was just so weird; too weird in fact, his processors were having trouble processing the information.
Still…old soldier programming kicked in and he began to study his new foe. He even activated infrared, to satisfy a curious itch. He wasn’t surprised when he noticed the same aura as before. Only now, it was much calmer and sparked with confidence.
“What’s the matter?” the obviously fake pony asked sadistically. “Don’t like the pony in the mirror?”
The fake pony suddenly hissed and threw himself at the real deal. Steel, not panicking, spun around on his front legs, using the balance he gained from bucking trees, and delivered a hard buck to the charging pony. Steel gasped, surprised by his actions, and turned around to see if the pony was damaged. He was surprise to see that a strange pony with insect features had replaced his double.
Steel trained his optic sensors onto the creature. It has the basic shape of a pony, only slightly thinner, shorter and covered in an exoskeleton. It has a horn and wings, like the some of the young sparklings, only the wings were a different bred and higher on the body. Finally, the creature had a pair of fangs above black eyes that seems so soulless.
If anything, this creature remained Steel of these old holo-vids of these Insecticons he use to watch when he was bored.
But what is this thing? Steel gasped when the words of the young sparklings came rushing back to him. This must be a Changeling Dinky and Rumble mentioned earlier. But why is it attacking me?
The autobot didn’t have time to pondering this thought farther, as the changeling recovered and took to the air, his wing making a buzzing sound. Steel readied himself when he noticed the horn on the changeling’s head become incased in energy. He noticed that the energy was similar to the aura that surrounded the changeling when he was in disguise.
The changeling released the energy he been storing and Steel dodged it by jumping to his right. The pony-like bug smirked as he dive bomb his prey, and right into the pony’s waiting back hooves, for a powerful buck.
Steel turned forward and watched in awe as the creature was send high into the air. He was still amazed at the raw power this shell has. He had learned that the hard way when he bucked a tree to hard. The tree nearly broke when he hit it and that had earned him a hard lecture from Applejack about the strength all earth ponies had.
He shook off the old memories and looked at the ground next to him. The spot he stood in just second before was now a little black, but otherwise fine.
What a predictable attack, Steel observed. The blast lacked any real power behind it. It wanted me to dodge so it could tackle me from above. A Con tried to pull that trick on me once, so there was no way I wouldn’t have spotted the signs.
The Cybertronian was brought out of his thoughts by a loud hissing. He looked up to see the changeling dive bombing him again. He saw that its horn was aglow, brighter then before and he knew what that meant. He jumped back just as a powerful blast hit the spot he was standing in.
Old programming kicked on at this point, and Steel readied himself for the fight coming. The changeling charged him, and he acted fast, turning to his side. He next swings his tail in front of the changeling’s eyes, temporally blinding the creature. Next, he directed the creature using his tail and it crushed right into the ground. The creature was quicker to recover then Steel gave it credit for, as it jumped back into the air, and continued to attack in the same method.
Steel quickly fell into a routine; the changeling would attack, either by dive bombing or tried firing a blast. The transformed Autobot would either dart to the side or jump back or retaliate if he could. The process was a slow one, but one that having the best results. The changeling was tiring himself out while Steel wasn’t wasting much energy.
I have seen sparkling fresh off the mold with better battle sense then this creature, Steel thought with aspiration.
The changeling was attacking with his horn blast again, and Steel decided it was time to end things. He rushed forward when the changeling fired and lined himself up for a powerful buck. He was suddenly blasted from the right, and he was sent to the ground. He managed to recover and got to his feet, in time to avoid another dive bomb from the air-born changeling.
Steel then distance himself from the foe was just fighting, and began to scan the area. It was obvious that there was more then one changeling in the area. So…did that mean that one that has been attacking him was nothing but a decoy, meant to wear him down? He activated infrared, but didn’t get a chance to use it as he was blasted from the right again.
Steel manage to stay on his feet, but was also starting feel the effect of repeated blasts to his side. A minor damage warning was sounding. At this point a fight or flight response was itching at the back of the transformer’s processor. At the same time, old combat experience began to resurface and made him realize one critical element…he was outnumbered.
So, he decided it was time to run for familiar ground. He spun around and ran for it using the map he was in the middle of creating to plot a course back to the farm.
(…)
Unit 6772 groan as he landed. Though one couldn’t see it from a distance, the changeling was hurt, more in pride then in body. The pony was tougher then he thought, and he quickly turned his usual tactic against him. It seems like all would be lost, until somepony blindsided the pony, and he soon ran afterwards.
“You are pathetic,” Time Turner said coldly, appearing from the shadow from the changeling’s right.
Despite his confusion at his commander officer’s appearance, 6772 saluted as the brown pony returned to his natural form. He looked nearly identical to the changeling in front of him, except he was a few inches taller, and wearing pale blue armor. The strangest thing about this changeling was the item strap to his side. It was some kind of gray cynical tube and looked quite alien.
“Commander Zeke! I wasn’t aware you were here?” 6772 said orderly.
Zeke glared at the changeling drone, a disapproving scowl on his face. “Of course I’m here. Do you actually think I would let you handle things after you screwed up so much?” the commander asked coldly.
If his commander’s words affected him in any ways, 6772 hid it rather well. Zeke walked up the changeling drone and sized him slightly. 6772 was unflinching as his commander’s eyes scan him. The Changeling commander sighs faintly, and activated his magic.
“The other members of your unit are currently leading the pony to a dead end,” Zeke explain stoically as he levitated the mysterious object to his subordinate. “I will let you use this weapon to finish off the pony. This is your last change, understand? Be thankful I’m giving you that much.”
6772 wordless took the weapon into his own magical hold, and saluted before hurrying after the fleeing pony. Zeke watched as his subordinate disappeared into the shadow, his expression softening slightly.
I’m hard on my subordinates because I don’t want them to suffer the same fate that my own commander suffered, when he failed our grand overlord. Right... Brother? Zeke thought with bit of sympathy.
(…)
So that bug was just a decoy! Steel thought in stress as he ducked into a nearby alley to avoid a blast from the right.
Steel had quickly learned that he was being targeted. When he hard tried to flee to Sweet Apple Acres, the only place he was semi-familiar with, he had found himself being blast from all sides. And to make matter worse he had learned that the enemy was fairly familiar with the land; they were clearly herding him to a certain location.
I starting to regret having my night vision options removed, Steel thought regretfully.
A blast hit near Steel’s left front hoof as he was exiting the back of the alley, and forced him to the right. He jumped to avoid a blast aimed at his front, and in the process turned him to the left, and into a much wider area. A blast went over the transformers head and duck, going into a roll in the process. He was blasted from the right just as got to his feet, knocking him to the left slightly, but otherwise stayed on his feet.
The Autobot in a pony body growled angrily to himself, and switched to infrared as he slowed to a cautious trot. It might not be the night vision he wanted, but if the enemy was out there, he should be able to see them. He snapped his head in all direction, trying to catch a glance of the enemy. Steel’s frustration started to grow when he couldn’t fine even a trance of the enemy.
Something isn’t right here, Steel thought in frustration. Not only does this enemy know the terrain well, they close to boxing me in.
He was blasted from the front and barely avoided it be jumping back. He growled again as he looked around. Even with infrared on, he couldn’t see the enemy. He wants back to normal vision, and looked around for an escape route. He spotted a nearby alley and run for it, despite his old soldier programming telling him that what the enemy wanted.
But if I reached the area and transform into my natural, I might be able to scare them enough to break their formation, Steel thought, starting to get a little desperate.
He reached the alley and stopped. He peered into the mouth, trying to find any trance of the enemy. He looked behind him when he noticed that the blast fire had stopped. Curious, he tried to step away from the alley, and was meant with a blast aimed at his back feet. He growled angrily as he slowly made his way into the alley.
So they did want me in this specific alley. But why? Steel pondered to himself as he ventured into the alley.
The disguised Cybertronian soon got his answer when he came to a dead end, and felt like wiping his processors clean. Trapping your enemy is one of the oldest military tactics, and like a Protoform fresh out of the mold, he had fallen for it. All because he dropped his guard slightly when facing a simple decoy!
Steel scowled as he faced forward and readied himself for the fight ahead. “It doesn’t matter now. All I need to do is transform and I-GAAAAAHHH!” the artificial pony was cut of when he face a powerful blast rip right through him.
Emergency alerts becoming sounding across the board as Steel felt several of his systems go into force shut down. He stumbled as he felt one of the control motors in his right back leg go offline. He tried to reroute some of his backup systems, but all of his systems were going offline to fast for him to manage any sort of save.
This feeling…it-it can-GAAAAHH! Steel’s train of thought was put to an immediate stop when another blast hit him, and he went offline immediately.
(…)
6772 smirked as he watched his prey fall to the ground like a sack of apples. The smirk was quickly replaced with a scowl as he thought about all that he went through because of the pony, as he walked up to the pony and gave him a swift to the gut. The changeling frowns when he noticed that the pony didn’t react in the slighted. He leaned down and checked to see if the inferior creature was still breathing. He was slightly relieved to find the creature breathing.
Now, to finished this,” 6772 replied seriously.
The changeling drone quick but gently set his weapon to the ground, and took two small, gray plates from one of his front legs. He attached one to the lobe on the pony head and the second one to the lobe on his head. The device on the pony’s head blinked twice in red and then became steady. A similar event happened with the device on the changeling’s lobe, only it blinked green before turning steady.
“Good, at least you didn’t mess that up,” 6772 turned around and saluted when he heard his commander’s voice. Zeke walked up to his subordinate and then pass him, and looked down at the unconscious pony. He then looked up at the sky and called, “6991, 6997! Take the prisoner to the base!”
At the commander’s orders, the two undisguised changelings descended from the sky. 6997 lowered herself to the ground and took the unconscious pony in her magic. She struggled to fill him due to changeling magic not being as strong as pony magic. Soon 6991 took the pony by the leg and together two carried off the pony into the night.
“You know what you need to do,” Zeke told his subordinate.
6772 saluted, and changed into the pony named Steel Hooves with a wisp of green fired. The now disguised changeling saluted one last time, and then made his way out of the alley. Zeke watched as his subordinate disappeared and sigh as he slipped back into his Time Turner form and began to walk back to the shop.
“Now…all of the pieces are ready,” Zeke said some solemnly. “We will not fail you, my queen. I will stake my life