by neorenamon
"Hey!" snarled Ratchet, "Keep that nose away from my flank!" She plopped her butt down on the ground of the town square if just to keep stallions from sniffing it. "Oh if I ever get my foot servos on that creepy... organic... mishmash creature!" she sighed. Looking up into the sky, she added, "I should be up there repairing Omega Supreme and checking up on Arcee."
"Let the Autoponies take care of that," said Bulkhead, "You know that you haven't learned to effectively use your new body."
"THAT DOESN'T MAKE MY PROCESSOR RUN MORE EFFICIENTLY!!"
"You gotta try one of these 'cakes' from Pinkie Pie," he said as he shoved another slice of cake into his gaping maw, "I'm sure it will... what did she call it? Make you happier?" It was a three layer piece of cake covered in pink frosting, covered with multi-colored sprinkles and had a chocolate layer of top of a white cake layer on top of a strawberry cake layer.
"You know that will just make you... larger... right?" she said as she glanced at the large green stallion.
"I don't know, but it sure goes well with my gustation sensor."
"Say," she noted as she looked at the next piece of cake, "Is that cake supposed to have a piece of paper in it?"
"Uh... I don't think so. Better take it out and look at it," he said as he pulled the note out.
"How can you read that with..." she said before he started licking off the frosting.
"Oh, it looks like it's a note to you from Discord," he said as he looked at the note. He was learning to read Equestrian after all.
"Oh what does he want?!"
"Are you sure you don't want to read it yourself?"
"Just read the darn note already," she sighed as she looked away from it.
Dearest Ratchet,
I know we are not the best of friends yet, but I have something for you. While I've only found a few fragments of your AllSpark, I have seen no signs of Princess Megatron and his remaining goons. But on the good side, I've found a fragment containing the one you call Prowl. You should expect him back in 11 months, give or take. I figured you above all others would want the honor of returning your friend to the land of the living.
"I wonder what he's talking about?"
A fragment shot from the note and almost instantly imbedded itself into Ratchet's abdomen.
"OH NO!!" she said, "He!.. He!.. He wouldn't DARE!"
"Dare what?"
"I think he just implanted Prowl's spark into my internal protoform factory!"
Bumblebee galloped up as he called, "Omega Supreme, Arcee and the others are coming back from the Moon! They should be here really soon!" He looked about as he said at the non-responses and said, "Aren't you excited?"
"Uh, I think Ratchet is going to have a foal and it's going to be Prowl."
"WHAT?!"
"I'm going to beat that Discord into scrap!!" moaned Ratchet.
"Oh wait," said Bulkhead as he looked back at the note, "I think there's more here..."
PS: I'm sure that Twilight and the others will take good care of you until it's time for delivery. She'll explain it to you much better than moi can. Oh, and once you start throwing up, just remember it's perfectly natural... and should only last a few months.
Love Discord.
"Oh what the scrap is he talking about... *HURK!!*" she moaned before bolting away towards the nearest bush. Her mouth was clearly full of something she didn't want to come back up.
"Now until this Princess Megatron comes back for you," said a nearby mare, "I'm sure you'll do a great job delivering Ponyville's mail."
As Ratchet heaved into the bush, the others looked up to see Derpy leading Lugnut through the air. It almost seemed fitting that the mare with the lazy eye was leading the large stallion with one huge red eye and a half a dozen much smaller eyes. Ponies couldn't help but stare.
"Very well," he said, "I'm sure that these skills shall prove useful once I return to Lord Princess Megatron's service."
"Now all these letters are arranged by street and address," she said as she almost flew into a tree in the path she wasn't looking at. She was looking back towards Lugnut. "Once you learn all the streets and the street numbers, I'll teach you how to sort the mail yourself."
"Well this should be amusing," muttered Bulkhead.
"What's wrong with Ratchet?" asked Optimus Prime as he trotted in from the direction of the library.
"Ask Twilight," he replied, "I'm pretty sure it's one of those... pony things."
"Ratchet is going to manufacture a new body for Prowl!" said Bumblebee, "Discord said so!" He paused to add, "I think that has something to do with Ratchet's current malfunction."
"Yeah," he replied, "I'll ask Twilight about it later..." Then he paused to add, "Oh, Omega is about to land. I got a message from Twilight... she says we need to see something... So let's get to the landing site."
...
Omega landed at the outskirts of Ponyville in spaceship mode. The others walked forwards as the ramp dropped. Once it was down, they could see the Autoponies in the pony forms beginning to disembark the ship. Princess Luna was leading Twilight and the other Elements. Now that they were in pony form, their Elements could still be seen to be mounted to their sternums like an imbedded gem.
Ratchet hung out in the back... in case she should have another 'incident'.
But then a new mare appeared at the top of the ramp.
"What's going on?" asked Optimus, "Who's the new pony?"
"Well," replied Twilight, "It looks like Discord's powers... have affected Arcee as well."
"WHAT?!" screeched Ratchet, "I swear I'm going to turn that Discord into scrap for this!"
"On the good side," she continued, "Arcee's apparently a teacher and we could always use another teacher to help Miss Cheerilee."
"I like to teach," she said softly.
Ratchet slowly came up to her as she said, "How much do you remember?"
"I remember the pony that tried so hard to help me," she said as she stepped up and placed her neck over Ratchet's neck. She returned the gesture, and soon they were both crying.
"What's wrong with my optics?!"
"I don't know," she replied, "but it just feels right somehow..."
"So how did the repairs go?" asked Optimus.
"I think we fixed everything we could on the moon," replied Twilight, "but we weren't able to repair the transformation cog... thingie..."
"That's alright," replied Bulkhead, "considering all of the stellar cycles he spent as a spaceship, I'm sure a few more won't hurt."
"AFFIRMATIVE," agreed Omega.
"Well now that that's out of the way," said Optimus, "I think we can start construction on the Autobot base on the outskirts of Ponyville. The operation to recapture Lord Princess Megatron and recover the AllSpark is going to be... a long term mission."
...
` "So," said Rainbow Dash to Slipstream, "Are you happy with the reward you got from Princess Celestia?"
"Well yes and no," she replied as she shifted on her front hooves.
"Wasn't it enough?" she asked curiously.
"Well, it's enough to cover our operational expenses as well as move our base to the new facility on the outskirts of Ponyville," she replied, "but we're definitely going to need some contracts to cover future expenses really soon."
"So..." she replied slowly, "About the promise then..."
"Don't worry about it," replied Slipstream suddenly looking up, "We don't need you for the Shadowbolts yet. I can tell that you're really close to your own... squad."
"Thanks. I'm really tight with my friends."
"But we... I would really like to have you counted as one of the Shadowbolt Reserves. It doesn't pay many bits and you do have to report for training each month..."
"Will you train me to fly and fight even better?" asked Dash quickly.
"That's part of the monthly training..."
"Well until I join the Wonderbolts, I'd love to be one of the Shadowbolt Reserves!"
"Whew... that's a load off my mind. I just have a feeling that when we do need you, you will step up and perform peerlessly."
"Hey!' she replied, "That's the only way I fly!"
Slipstream smiled.