//------------------------------// // More than Meets the Eye // Story: Ponies/Transformers: Cybertron Boys // by Quick-5 //------------------------------// "Dear Princess Twilight," Twilight Sparkle read, "The Dazzlings have recently come to us seeking shelter since...well, they've been living on the streets since the Battle of the Bands. We agreed to help them if they agreed to try and change, and they did. At least I hope they did. Sonata is staying with Pinkie Pie and the two of them seem to get along well. Aria is staying with Applejack and she says that Aria is somewhat cooperative. I can't say the same for Adagio, though. She's staying with me and she is an absolute pain. She's pushy, arrogant, and her hair constantly clogs up my drains. I know, I know 'love and tolerance' and all that jazz, but I'm seriously concerned that Adagio will never change. Any ideas? On a side note, I hope you and your friends are doing well. How is the rehabilitation of Starlight Glimmer coming along? Given what you've told me about her, I wonder what she'd be like in this world. Food for thought I suppose! Your faithful student, Sunset Shimmer." Twilight rubbed her chin with a thoughtful expression on her face. The Dazzlings, she mused. of course Adagio would be the impossible one to work with. Twilight pondered for a brief moment before levitating a nearby quill. "Dear Sunset Shimmer," she wrote, "Thank you for informing me of your current state of affairs. I'm glad the Dazzlings were willing to own up for their actions. If you want my advice on dealing with Adagio, try appealing to her ego when dealing with her once in a while, while still being firm when holding your ground. Trust me, I know what it's like to deal with an egomaniac you're trying to help." Twilight stopped writing and chuckled to herself for a moment, thinking of her encounters with Trixie. "As for Starlight Glimmer, her rehabilitation is going better than I expected. I assigned her to helping young foals learn about the significance of Cutie Marks in Trottingham! I think she'll find the experience enlightening. Since humans don't have Cutie Marks, it would be interesting to see how Starlight is on Earth, wouldn't it? Remember, don't hesitate to contact me if you ever need advice. Unless I'm stuck in a time loop again, but hopefully that won't happen! Good luck! Sincerely, Princess Twilight Sparkle." Twilight signed the letter to her pupil before closing her magic book. Twilight sighed wistfully as she placed her book in her saddlebags, grinning to herself. Writing to Sunset Shimmer in such a way reminded her of when she used to write to Princess Celestia as her student. She smiled wider realizing that she was in the role of the mentor. It was an odd, but wonderful sensation. Twilight was snapped from her thoughts by a frantic knocking at her door. "Come in." she called out. The large door burst open to reveal a small, purple and green dragon. That little dragon was Spike. "Twilight! You've gotta see this!" he called. Twilight's eyebrow raised. "What's going on?" she asked. "It's the map!" Spike shouted. "It's acting up again!" he then suddenly looked at Twilight's flank. Twilight noticed this and followed Spike's gaze. Sure enough, her starburst Cutie Mark was glowing. Her eyes then grew wide and she smiled a great toothy grin. "Well, what are we waiting for!?" Twilight exclaimed. "Let's go see what it is!" she then bolted out the door with Spike close behind. On the way to the map, various scenarios began popping up in her mind. What sort of friendship problem could she have to solve this time? Maybe some sort of major conflict between two rival pony clans? Perhaps a society that lives without friendship? Maybe another Starlight Glimmer scenario? None of her questions were answered when she got to the map in the main hall of her castle. Twilight's eyebrow raised when she saw her Cutie Mark swirling around an area near the edge of the Everfree Forest. An area leading to a ravine, no less. That wasn't all, however. Alongside her starburst were 3 pink butterflies dancing about the area. "Uh...what kind of friendship problem's going on there?" Twilight inquired. Spike simply shrugged. "I don't know. The map called you there!" Twilight simply shook her head. "Oh well. I'll figure it out when we get there. In the meantime, where's Fluttershy?" Spike's response was another shrug. "Maybe she hasn't noticed yet." Twilight suggested, scribbling the location on her own map. "Let's go get her!" With that, she teleported herself and Spike directly in front of Fluttershy's cottage. Ignoring the dizzied Spike behind her, Twilight happily knocked on Fluttershy's door. "Fluttershy! Have you noticed your Cutie Mark flashing? The Cutie Map is calling us to deal with a friendship problem!" she called. When she received no response, she frowned. "Fluttershy? You there?" Suddenly, Twilight's ears perked as she heard a bizarre sound coming from behind the cottage. It sounded like a strange...beeping. Curious, Twilight and Spike peeked around their friend's house. "I'm sorry, but my Cutie Mark is flashing. I wish I could stay and help you more, but-" Fluttershy was interrupted by a knocking at her door and a calling from Twilight Sparkle. "But, what am I supposed to do now?" Fluttershy's "guest" asked. "Well, um..." Fluttershy began before Twilight called again. "Quick! Hide!" "I AM hiding!" the guest exclaimed. "Well, hide somewhere else! I don't know! Just-" Fluttershy said. "Fluttershy?" Twilight asked, poking her head around the corner of the cottage. Fluttershy froze, nervously looking at her friend. "Oh, hi Twilight." Fluttershy nervously said. "Who are you talking to?" Twilight said, raising her eyebrow. From what she could tell, all that was in Fluttershy's backyard was her yellow friend, and a large metal vehicle. We all would see it as a yellow muscle car with black stripes. Twilight didn't know that, though. "Well...uh...just comforting my new animal pen before I let my bunnies in!" Fluttershy lied poorly. Twilight and Spike just stared. "Uh...ok." Spike said uncertainly. Fluttershy smiled innocently. Twilight just shook her head. "Anyway. In case you haven't noticed, the map is calling us!" Twilight exclaimed excitedly. "This is so exciting! The only weird thing is that we're supposed to go to some ravine by the edge of Everfree but hey, mystery right!?" At the mention of the ravine, the car beeped, causing Fluttershy to jump. "Uh, Fluttershy?" Spike said. "Your bunny shelter just beeped." Fluttershy's eyes darted back and forth in a panicked fashion as she tried to think up an excuse. Before she could blurt out an unconvincing response, the car spoke. "Well, no point in hiding anymore." The car said. To Fluttershy, the car spoke. But to Twilight and Spike, the vehicle emitted a series of strange beeps. Before any of the ponies could respond, the car's parts began shifting and changing. The ponies looked on in awe at the convulsing mass of metal as it reassembled itself into something new. Before long the car began to take on a humanoid shape. Before they knew it, a giant yellow-and-black robot was standing before them. Fluttershy rubbed her foreleg before turning back to Twilight and Spike. She found the unicorn and dragon staring, mouths agape, at her mechanical guest. "Um... I guess I should introduce you, huh?" Fluttershy said. "Twilight, Spike: this is Bumblebee." "Hi." Bumblebee said. Of course, all Twilight and Spike heard was a short series of beeps. "Fluttershy," Twilight said. "you've brought a lot of strange creatures home in the time I've known you, but this definitely takes the cake." "Yeah, I get that a lot." Bumblebee beeped. "Well, I found poor Bumblebee lost in the Everfree Forest, and I couldn't just leave him." Fluttershy explained. "'Poor'?" Spike questioned. "Ok, ok. Enough small talk." Bumblebee beeped. "Where is this ravine you need to go?" Twilight looked into the robot's glowing blue optics that stared at her expectantly, not understanding what Bumblebee asked of her. "Well?" Bumblebee beeped again. "Oh!" Fluttershy remembered that her friends didn't have her translation abilities. "Bumblebee asked where the ravine was." Twilight pulled out her map and showed it to Fluttershy and a kneeling Bumblebee. "Hm." Bumblebee beeped. "Why do you need to go there again?" "We're being summoned to solve a friendship problem, apparently." Fluttershy explained, glancing at her shimmering Cutie Mark. "Really?" Bumblebee beeped skeptically. Fluttershy nodded. "What does that even mean?" "Well...um..." Fluttershy was unsure where to begin. "Never mind. You can explain it when we get there." Bumblebee beeped again. With that, he quickly shifted back into his car form and opened his doors. "Hop in." "Huh?" Everypony said. "I know where you're headed. I'll give you a lift." Bumblebee offered. "What'd he say?" Twilight questioned. "He said he'll give us a lift to where we're headed." Fluttershy translated. "Oh." Twilight replied. "Well...ok. Lead on, mysterious robot." She then proceeded to hop into Bumblebee's driver seat, Fluttershy climbing into the passenger seat. Spike shook his head. "Uh uh. No way." he proclaimed, crossing his arms. "I'm not getting into that thing." "Aw. C'mon." Bumblebee beeped. "You can trust this face." "He can't see your face." Fluttershy reminded. "Oh yeah." Bumblebee replied. "Don't worry, Spike." Twilight reassured, levitating Spike into the back seat. "I'm sure it's fine," Twilight then turned to Bumblebee's dashboard. "and if it tries to hurt you I'll use my immense magic power to reduce it to scrap metal." she said in a sing-song voice. Fluttershy suddenly looked quite frightened. "...Noted." Bumblebee beeped. With that, his doors shut and he sped off into the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy nervously leaned over to her friend and whispered "You wouldn't really do that to Bumblebee, would you?" Twilight shook her head no, much to Fluttershy's relief and Spike's disappointment. Bumblebee drove his way around trees and rocks, along rocky ravines and through packs of timberwolves. "Hey Fluttershy, I've got a question." Bumblebee said. "Those woody things I just drove through...are they animals or plants?" "I think they're possessed plants, but they're so scary they won't let me study them." Fluttershy explained. "Was it asking about timberwolves?" Twilight asked. Fluttershy nodded in confirmation. Twilight smiled and Spike groaned. "Well..." Twilight began. "From what I gathered on my various studies of timberwolf biology, the creatures are made of plant-like material but have the spirit of an animal creature inside of them. It's bizarre considering their mating habits reflect that of animals but the actual reproduction is-" "Oh, look! We're here!" Bumblebee beeped, interrupting Twilight's speech. Bumblebee's passengers looked out his windows to see...just a regular ravine. The car came to a halt as its doors opened once again, prompting the ponies and dragon to exit the vehicle. Bumblebee shifted back into his robot form and climbed down the ravine wall. The ponies glided down behind him, Spike on Twilight's back. "Sooo, where's the friendship problem?" Twilight asked. Bumblebee held up a finger in a "wait" fashion. He then proceeded to walk to the other side of the ravine. "What's he doing?" Spike questioned, scratching his head. Bumblebee looked like he was about to walk straight into the wall on the other side of the ravine. But just when he was about to crash into the rock wall, he vanished. "Huh?" The ponies all said at once. Bumblebee's upper half popped out of the rock wall, beckoning his new friends to follow. The ponies and dragon hesitantly walked to the cliff face. Twilight tried to touch the wall, but her hoof went right through it. "An illusion! How did I not detect it? It's seamless!" Bumblebee just shrugged and disappeared behind the fake wall once again, his passengers following. Despite all their previous adventures, nothing could have prepared Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy for what they saw behind the figurative curtain. Behind the illusion was a cave. Within the cave was an enormous spacecraft filling nearly the entire space. Moving in, out, and around the craft were many giant robots of all shapes and sizes going about their business. "Whoa." Was all the ponies and Spike could say. Bumblebee smirked at their reaction. "Ok, you guys stay here. There's someone you need to meet." Bumblebee beeped, heading towards the ship. Fluttershy relayed the message to her friends. "This place is so cool!" Spike commented, taking in the hugeness of the spaceship. "I agree." Twilight said. "I mean, how long has this been here? How many robots are there? How big is this ship? How did it get here? So many questions! I mean-" "Well, well? What have we here?" A voice said. The ponies and dragon looked to their side to see two robots looking down at them. "You fleshies lost?" asked a brownish-green robot with a cannon on his shoulder. "W-well..u-um..." Fluttershy stuttered. "You better be lost." The other robot said. "Or maybe you were sent here to find us and expose us to your leaders! Is that it!?" The red robot with horns on his head accused. Fluttershy began whimpering in fear. "That's enough!" Twilight stepped in. "Don't accuse my friend of something just out of the blue." she told off the red robot. "Well, prove I'm wrong!" The red robot demanded. The other robot grabbed his friend's shoulder. "Ease up, Cliff. She ain't wrong." he said. "Cliff" snorted. "Well, I'm not gonna just let any random fleshie that wanders into our base have full access!" he said, reaching for the ponies. Spike responded by breathing a gout of flame, causing Cliff to yelp in pain and pull back his hand. "Spike!" Twilight scolded. "Why, you little-" Cliff grumbled, reaching for something behind his back before he was interrupted. "Cliffjumper! Hound!" A deep voice called. The aforementioned robots looked towards the spacecraft. The ponies' eyes followed. There stood Bumblebee, and beside him was a much taller robot coloured red with a blue helmet-like head. "I trust you're not harassing our guests, are you?" "Well, it's not my fault!" Cliffjumper defended. "The little snot burned my hand." "He was the one reaching for me!" Spike yelled. "Well you-" Cliffjumper began before Hound grabbed his shoulder again. "Just let it go." Hound suggested. Cliffjumper gave one last look towards the ponies, giving them the "I'm watching you" gesture before walking off, nursing his burn. Hound followed after silently apologizing to the red and blue robot. Spike stuck his tongue out at Cliffjumper, Fluttershy began to breathe normally again, and Twilight just shook her head, happy the dilemma was over. She then turned to the red and blue robot. "Thanks for that mister...um.." she thanked. "My name is Optimus Prime." The robot introduced itself. "We are Autonomous Robotic Organisms from the planet Cybertron." "But you can call us 'Autobots' for short." Bumblebee added. "Autobots?" Fluttershy asked. Optimus and Bumblebee nodded in confirmation. "Well, Autobots." Twilight said, bowing her head slightly. "My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle-" "HA! I KNEW IT!" Cliffjumper called before being dragged away by Hound. "...Princess of Friendship, and this is my friend Fluttershy, and my assistant Spike." Twilight finished. Fluttershy smiled nervously and Spike waved. "It's a pleasure to meet you." "The pleasure is mine, your highness." Optimus replied. Twilight breathed out. "Now that the pleasantries are out of the way...OMIGOSH OMIGOSH OMIGOSH!!" Twilight shrieked. "Real, sentient robots in the flesh, and from another planet no less! This is so cool!! I'm engaging in the first interaction with an extraterrestrial species! This is so exciting! Can I ask you a few questions?" Somewhat taken aback by Twilight's outburst, Optimus replied. "There will be time enough for that later. In the meantime, Bumblebee has informed me that you were going to make your way here for an express purpose. What was it?" Somewhat surprised by the question, Twilight answered. "Oh. As the Princess of Friendship, it's my duty to solve major friendship problems across Equestria, and my magical map pointed me to this location. So...is there a friendship problem nearby?" Twilight looked around her. "Do we just have to teach Cliffjumper a lesson?" "Princess of Friendship? You never mentioned that!" Bumblebee beeped. "Did you hear that? I was driving royalty!" "While there are no 'friendship problems' I can think of happening among us Autobots," Optimus said. "I am somewhat glad the first native we interact with is a figure of authority." Twilight rubbed her foreleg. "Weeeeell, I'm not the HIGHEST authority in the land. That honor goes to the Princesses Celestia and Luna. I'm sure I could get them to see you and sort everything out." "That would be appreciated." Optimus said. "We'd hate to cause a disturbance among the people of this planet." "Great!" Twilight said. "Then will you answer my questions?" "You may ask all the questions you like." Optimus agreed. Twilight grinned widely. "Spike, take a letter." she commanded. "Uh, Twilight?" Spike said. "We don't have any parchment." "Oh." Twilight said. "Well, that's fixable." using her magic, she made a piece of parchment and quill appear before Spike. Twilight began dictating the letter as Bumblebee and Optimus Prime moved back to their spacecraft. "Do you really think this is a good idea?" Bumblebee asked his leader. "It's our best course of action right now." Optimus replied. "It's best if we let them know we mean no harm before they attack us on sight." "It's just a good thing we're the first of our kind they come across." Bumblebee commented. "Imagine if a Decepticon showed up at Fluttershy's instead of me." "Thank the AllSpark they haven't appeared here..." Optimus agreed. Somewhere, in another part of Equestria some diamond dogs were digging for valuables in a seemingly untouched mine. The head dog overlooked the operations of his workers with detached interest. His mutts were working hard to find as many shiny things as possible. So far, the dogs had found large deposits of what appeared to be glowing pink crystals. They were really pretty, but they exploded if handled too rough. Such an odd mineral. The head dog's attention was diverted to one of his workers calling him. The worker led the leader down a long tunnel dotted with those same crystals they'd been finding. When they got to the end of the tunnel they came across something truly astonishing. There was a large cave, and sitting in the middle of it was an enormous, black, sinister-looking spaceship. The diamond dogs were stunned by this discovery, but came to one logical conclusion: there was probably something rare and valuable inside. With that, the head dog and some workers found a hatch on top of the spaceship and made their way inside. But what they found wasn't the shinies that they hoped for. Inside was a bunch of huge, metal, humanoid bodies just lying about. The dogs didn't give up their search, though. The dogs scattered about, investigating the bodies and whatever else was on the ship. The head dog was majorly disappointed by this discovery. All this digging for a bunch of metal apes. The dog leaned on a piece of metal that happened to be right beside him. Little did he know what it truly was. As soon as his elbow touched the metal piece, a beam shot out of it. The dogs jumped away from the beam which hit one of the many metal bodies littering the floor. After a brief moment, the body began moving. The giant metal creature groaned as it awakened after its long stasis lock. It opened its glowing red optics and rubbed its head. After it managed to get on its feet it surveyed the room. It was dark, dreary, and deactivated, but that could be fixed. The creature then looked to a very particular body. The Decepticon known as Skywarp smirked as it moved towards its master's unmoving body, dragging it towards the beam. "Awaken, Lord Megatron..."