//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - Revealed // Story: Two Cybertronians Walk Into A Movie Theater // by Solphestus //------------------------------// “It’s about that plan… You see, I asked you to come with me because…” “Go on…” Skywarp encouraged. “U-um… A-a-after the m-movie I…” Arcee stuttered, her blush beginning to grow. “If you don’t want to tell me, it’s okay.” Skywarp said. “I WAS GOING TO TELL YOU THAT I LIKED YOU!” Arcee shouted, covering her face with her talons. “... I like you a lot too… Why is this so important?” Skywarp asked. “Because I like you as more than just a friend...” Alice whispered. “What was that, Alice?” Skywarp asked. “I like you as more than just a friend...” “One more time…” Skywarp said. “I’ll try listening more.” “I LOVE YOU!” Arcee shouted, tears streaming down her face. Skywarp suddenly transformed into his robot form and fell out of the sky, faceplanting onto the sand after having just finished crossing the ocean. He pulled his faceplate away from the ground. “What did you say!?” Skywarp yelled. His servos were doing overtime. Arcee went to repeat herself but fainted, having short circuited from the emotional overload. She then subconsciously transformed back into her robot mode as fell to the ground, crash landing in the sand right next to Skywarp. Skywarp’s processors then slowly began to grasp what Arcee had said. “You… Love me…?” ‘It must be a mistake! She’s been my friend since I was a lot younger… Uh… When was tha- Nevermind… I’ll just wait for her to wake up and we’ll get this misunderstanding sorted out…’ Skywarp thought to himself. He stared at Arcee for a minute before dragging her body into his lap. ‘I do care about her… And she is cute…’ ‘What are you thinking!? She’s your friend and you’re checking her out!?’ Another voice yelled at Skywarp. The cybertronian shook his head. ‘She likes you, go for it! You know you like her, the only thing stopping you is your friendship! Make it more!’ Another voice said. Skywarp’s inner turmoil made it so he didn’t realize he was hugging her. ‘It wouldn’t work! You’re a robot for crying out loud ‘Fuck her!’ A third voice shouted. ‘Shut up…’ ‘Yeah, nobody likes you…’ ‘What is wrong with me…?’ Skywarp mentally sighed. ‘What does it matter if you love her and she loves you back? If you both care for one another, then make it official! And you don’t have anyone here who cares about you as much as she does. No mom, dad, or cousin/sister Jill.’ Skywarp was leaning towards the darker voice now. ‘Have you seen what happens when best friends fall in love? Bad things happen, and they break up, and then their friendship is gone… Your friendship will be gone…” Now Skywarp was back to his in between stage again. ‘Look, two out of three voices say yes, so just kiss her when she wakes up…’ ‘That’s… Actually pretty smart…’ ‘What…?’ Arcee groaned as she began to reboot. “What hap-” She said as her eyes slowly opened before trailing off. “Well…” Skywarp muttered, staring down at Arcee. He had just realized he was hugging her close to him. “This is awkward…” Arcee squeaked before pushing herself away from Thad, her face instantly turning bright red. “W-w-what’s g-going on!?” She demanded. “Uh… You said you… L-love me…” Skywarp said weakly. “I… Confessed?” Arcee asked as she started staring off into space. “I… Think… Unless I heard you wrong, in which I am deeply sorry!” Skywarp sputtered. “By the allspark… It's over… It's all over…” Arcee muttered, curling up into a ball. “I’ve gone and confessed like an idiot and ruined our friendship by making it awkward…” She continued as she started rocking back and forth. “No, no…” Skywarp said. “I… Just let me think it over, okay? This is… It’s new territory for me…” Arcee immediately stopped rocking and slowly turned to look Skywarp in the eye. “Y-you mean it?” “Yeah… This is just… It’s so sudden…” Skywarp said, looking away. Arcee simply nodded in response before slowly getting to her feet. “T-take your t-time…” She said sadly. Skywarp nodded silently as he himself stood up. “Captain Rainbow Dash reporting in after receiving repairs ma’am!” Rainbow said, saluting to her commanding officer after entering the room. “At ease, Dash.” Spitfire stated. “What do you have to report?” “Yesterday afternoon I made contact with an unidentified flying object admiral. I didn't get a very good look at it but whatever it was, it didn't belong to the empire.” “Hmm… I’ll warn ponies of it’s existence.” Spitfire said. “So, how’s your squad? Any casualties?” “None to report ma’am.” Rainbow replied. “Good, we lose too many ponies as it is, it’s good to hear nopony died.” Spitfire said. “I heard your team got a lot done. Freeing ponies in concentration camps, destroying enemy barricades, and even liberating Las Pegasus… You have quite the track record…” “I’m just doing what I can ma’am.” “I know. That’s why you and your group is going to be elevated to Beta Squad.” Spitfire said. “Tougher missions, better funding, etc...” “I won't let you down.” Rainbow said, saluting again before leaving. “So…?” Fleetfoot asked. “We've been promoted to Beta Squad…” Rainbow sighed as she walked towards the barracks. “What!? That’s amazing!” Fleetfoot said, trotting with Dash. “Beta Squad can help us a lot! It’s almost as good as Alpha Squad, and that’s Soarin’s squad!” Rainbow Dash suddenly froze in place as she did a double take. “Wait that’s Soarin's squad!? I totally forgot!” Rainbow shouted, a blush spreading across her muzzle. Fleetfoot’s energy faltered. “Y-yeah… It’s his…” Skywarp was testing out his flamethrower as he ate a red gem. “Man, this world is full of gems. Won’t be hard getting energon, eh?” “Y-yeah… You know, this kinda reminds me of Beast Wars, where the Transformers had to take on beast modes to survive because they landed on a planet that was literally covered in energon crystals!” Arcee said, starting to feel slightly less awkward. “Yeah… Only things are different here.” Skywarp remarked. “Definitely, mostly in the part that these gems aren't pure energon and that the creatures are of mythical origin though.” Arcee giggled. “Yeah… What are we going to do after this? I mean… We’re Transformers…” Skywarp shrugged. “That’s about it…” “We’ll find something eventually…” Arcee said, looking away with a slight blush from the thoughts running through her head. “Anyway! What should we do first? Try befriending the ponies? Or find somewhere to set up a base?” “Well… Hmm… A base. We’ll need a ‘fallout shelter’ in case things don’t go smoothly.” Skywarp said. “Ok then, where would be a good place to start?” Arcee asked as she transformed into her dragon mode. “Well… I think there was a cave on a mountain near Ponyville… There was a dragon in it, but I think he’s gone.” Skywarp said, remembering seeing little bits of Dragon Shy when he visited his brony friend. “Lead the way then fido!” Arcee joked as she took flight. “Don’t call me fido…” Skywarp grumbled as he took flight as well. “Whatever you say~” Arcee sang before turning around and following Skywarp. Skywarp glared. “You weasel...” “How and why am I a weasel?” Arcee asked as she returned Skywarp’s glare with her own. “... No comment…” Skywarp looked away, realizing what he said. “Oh no you don't… You are explaining yourself right now mister.” Arcee said, speeding up until she was flying right next to Thad. “Why?” Skywarp asked. “You explain why you called me fido!” “Because you are leading us to something that I don't know where it is.” Arcee said, giving Skywarp an impish smirk. “Now it's only fair that you tell me since I told you.” “Because you…” Skywarp groaned. “I don’t know why I said it… It just came out.” Arcee just stared at Skywarp for a moment before sighing. “Your such a dope.” “And this is you hitting on me?” Skywarp slipped up. “S-sorry!” Arcee blushed as she swiftly looked away from Skywarp. “N-no… I-If I was hitting on you I would be… NEVERMIND!” She stuttered before shouting and speeding up, leaving Skywarp behind. She then spotted the cave he had mentioned and flew as fast as she could towards it. Skywarp facepalmed. “Stupid…” He then quickly flew over and landed in the cave before gasping. There was so much treasure that even a billionaire would freak. There was then a loud crash as one of the many massive piles of treasure collapsed. “Help~?” Arcee then said, her voice sounding like it came from under the recently collapsed pile of treasure. Skywarp rushed to Arcee, where he saw her completely buried except for her tail under the mass of gold and gems. “Hmm… This is a good look for you.” Skywarp teased, yanking on Arcee’s tail lightly. “Ack! Don't pull my tail!” Arcee shouted in pain. “And being buried alive is NOT funny! I feel like I’m being crushed down here!” “Okay, okay, gimme a second.” Skywarp said, activating his canons and aiming. “You might want to brace yourself...” “Wait, what are you doing?” Arcee asked nervously as she started to hear Skywarp’s blasters charging up. “No, no, no! Wait!” Skywarp shot the top layer of treasure out, eliminating half of what was burying her. “Can you get out now!?” Skywarp asked. There was then a loud rumbling sound as the other piles of treasure in the room began to shake from the shockwave created by Skywarp shooting the pile of treasure on top of Arcee. “We’re doomed…” Arcee whimpered from under what was left of the pile that covered her. Skywarp yelped as another pile fell on him. “Gah! Son of a-” “I tried to warn you…” Arcee grumbled as she tried and failed to dig herself out. “All you said was wait…” Skywarp grumbled. “Emphasis on tried.” Arcee grumbled, “Now what are we going to do?” “Well… We could talk about why you like me… Or we could test ways to get us out of here…” Skywarp suggested. “Erm… Um… I… Uh…” Arcee stuttered as her mind ground to a halt, her face turning crimson. “You already told me you love me, I wanna know why.” Skywarp said calmly. “...” Arcee just stared off into space at this unexpected question. “Um… I-It’s a l-long story…” “I think we have time…” Skywarp said. “W-well… Um… Where do you want me to start?” “When you first really felt it…” Skywarp said. “W-well… I-I don't really know to be honest…” Arcee admitted. “B-but I think this all s-started when you saved my life…” “That means… This whole time… You’ve been in love with me?” Skywarp asked. “Pretty much, you could almost call it love at first sight.” Arcee chuckled nervously. “That’s actually really sweet…” Skywarp said. “Can you try slithering out?” “...” Arcee was slightly confused by the sudden change in subject but complied, attempting to see if she could wiggle out. After a bit of struggling she eventually succeeded in freeing her head before remembering something. “Hey… Can’t you teleport?” She asked, slightly annoyed that she had just spent over an hour just to free her head. “I haven’t tried that, and… I’d rather see where I’m teleporting…” Skywarp replied. “I don’t want to end up in a wall.” “You have a point…” Arcee sighed as she continued trying to wiggle free. “Once you’re out, dump the gold. We don’t need it, so get it out of the cave or move it to the back!” Skywarp yelled. “Well I don't know about you but I’m keeping the gold for now! You never know when it may be useful!” Arcee shouted as she finally got free of the shiny prison. She then proceeded to start moving the gold to the back of the cave while letting Skywarp stay buried for a bit just to get back at him for pulling her tail. “Separate the gems from the gold why don’tcha?” Skywarp added. “Yeah yeah…” Arcee muttered, rolling her eyes as she started to dig Skywarp out. After a minute she got him free before transforming back into her robot mode. “No more blasters indoors for you.” “Now where’s the fun in that?” Skywarp asked, booping her nose. “...” Arcee just stared at Skywarp for a minute before sighing and walking away. Once they were done, Skywarp yawned. “Wish there were beds up here…” He then plopped down onto his rear and leaned against the gold pile. “We’re *yawn* cybertronians… We don't need beds…” Arcee said sleepily as she sat down next to Skywarp. “I know… S’pose I’m just used to beds…” Skywarp sighed, leaning back. “You gonna miss anything from back home…?” “Maybe a few things…” Arcee said as she leaned against Skywarp, “But at least I have the most important thing~” she then fell asleep while leaning on his chest. Skywarp felt his spark beaming in his chest. Most important thing. For some reason, he felt like it was him she was talking about. But he didn’t want to assume. He wrapped his arm around Arcee and fell asleep himself. There was only one thing he worried about... If his body would snore.