//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 // Story: Transformers Prime: Ponies in Disguise // by RavageXeno //------------------------------// Grimmy remained motionless on the ground, and so did the group of ponies sat on the ground around him. The only movement came from Haunt as she frantically worked on Grimmy, trying to find any sign of life after she had watched the last flicker of light from his eye fade back to darkness. “Sister, it’s no use... He’s gone,” Scar said, after watching his sister worriedly for the past 10 minutes. “No. Just give me a second or two... I just need time...” Haunt replied absentmindedly as she continued working. “How much time? How much longer do we have to wait here in the dirt!?” Starscream shouted, jumping up from his place before anyone could protest. “Starscream..” Rarity said, in an attempt to stop him, but he ignored her. “We’ve done what you asked! We got rid of Olethron. Now leave that tin can be and get us home!” he shouted, before kicking Grimmy in the chest. He let out a pained gasp as his hoof hit the solid metal, but kept his stern gaze on Haunt. She hadn’t moved since he had started his rant, and only watched him with a blank expression. Her gaze never left him, and after a few seconds it began to make him uncomfortable. Until he eventually moved to stand by the head of Grimmy, to keep him between him and her whilst he continued to shuffle under her gaze. Starscream froze. Looking to his side, he saw the cause of the noise that had made him stop. He turned to face an open maw filled with rows of razor sharp teeth and the red hue of the first hints of fire. Opening his jaws fully as he rose to his full height, Grimmy roared and blasted Starscream with a jet of hot air that made him take a few steps back. Seemingly satisfied that Starscream had received his warning, Grimmy turned away from the stumbling pegasus. Before he could move, Haunt tackled him in a hug that nearly knocked him back onto the floor. “See... people can’t ignore my brilliance...” Starscream mumbled as he went to sit back down with the others. Lazerbeak was laughing at him as he landed on his wing, but Starscream was too dazed at the moment to glare at him. Starscream turned away from the touching reunion that was taking place before him, and instead directed his gaze to his surroundings. Haunts other robots and the soldiers who had participated in the battle were slowly making their way through it, tending to the fallen ponies and slowly removing any sign of the battle. The large thundercloud that had been hovering over the battlefield slowly began to disperse and it wasn’t long before there was no sign of it, and only the faint glow of the approaching dusk was left in the sky. However as Starscream watched the sky he noticed one dark cloud hadn’t dispersed, and instead looked as if it was heading towards them. “Erm... Guys...” Starscream said, and everyone followed his gaze to see what he was looking at. The dark shape that was still heading towards them was too organised to be a cloud, it had straight edges and as it got closer it looked as if it was more like a swarm than a cloud. Suddenly, it was above them, and a large squadron of bat ponies landed around them. Acting on some pre-set order, the new arrivals set to work helping the other soldiers clear up the battlefield. “Princess Luna!” Twilight exclaimed as she trotted over to Luna’s chariot that had landed next to Haunt’s. The two bat ponies that were pulling it unhitched themselves and stood a short distance behind the princess of the night, acting as her bodyguards. Luna opened her mouth to respond when a blue blur jumped between them and stopped in front of her. Luna stared mouth slightly agape when she saw Xena Rose frozen to the spot before her. “X-xena...” Luna said almost uncertainly. “You... you’re okay...” Xena Rose said, before tentatively reaching a hoof out towards Luna. She stared at it for a few minutes once it had made contact, then leapt at her and entombed her in a hug. “I thought you were lost forever...” she muttered as she wrapped her tail around the princess almost protectively. “Sister told us you’d vanished from Equestria, otherwise we would have found you sooner,” Luna said, after getting over her initial surprise and returning the hug. Xena hissed loudly at her last sentence, and everyone instinctively stepped back as a roar rang out from the forest that was evidently from Raven. “Don’t,” Luna said calmly as she broke up the hug, “you know she was only doing what she thought was best.” “Fine, I won’t kill her. Yet.” Xena Rose replied, grinning at Luna. “But no promises about torturing her with music.” Luna sighed, before looking up and noticing the others stood around them. “I’m guessing you are tired from the past events,” Luna said addressing them, and they nodded. “Go, get some rest. We shall tend to things here.” “What, pray tell, are we doing here?” Starscream grumbled for what felt to the others like the hundredth time. And as with most of the other times they ignored him and continued looking through the seemingly endless sea of statues. Starscream sighed and sat on the path in the middle of the large room, and resigned himself to waiting until someone found something interesting. It was the day after the battle, and instead of heading back to Ponyville so that they could be on their way home, the others had insisted on exploring the statues. They had expected the castle to be empty, but when he had knocked on the door - in anguish at their delay being prolonged by a locked door - Quill Brooks had answered it. Though before Rainbow had time to attack the butler, he had offered his services to Haunt and Scar, exclaiming something about being loyal to their family which now contained only them two. He had been more than happy to lead us to the trophy room, and had even smiled when Haunt had called him by his actual name. Starscream disliked being in the castle, it always seemed unnaturally empty. And the sooner he got home the better, he was more than sick of pastel coloured talking ponies and their land. “Cubey! I’d wondered where you’d got to!” Haunt exclaimed, knocking Starscream out of his sombre thoughts. “He was my favourite toy as a child,” she continued after the puzzled looks she was receiving from the others. “Burn it.” Scar said bluntly as he continued to examine a statue of a pegasus with a pentagram as his cutie mark. “You monster!” Haunt replied, glaring at her brother as she moved away from the statue she was going on about. Starscream lost interest in the conversation then, and only caught snippets of it and some random sentence about a potato. “Hey Screamer. Stop looking so glum,” Pinkie said as she jumped in front of him. “There might be something you need in here.” Before he could respond she sauntered off, with Bob her swarm insecticons now flying along behind her. He felt Laserbeak land on his shoulder as he was about to lose himself back in his own thoughts, but then he remembered what he had seen the last time he was here. “Pinkie!” he exclaimed as he jumped to his hooves nearly knocking Laserbeak off his perch. “I don’t suppose you have any wrapping paper?” he asked after he had caught up with her. “Of course Screamer!” she said, before pulling about a meter of colourful striped paper out of her mane and handing it to him. “I think I might need more than that,” he replied.