Megatron sighed and slumped in his chair. He leaned his head forward and rested it in his metal hand.
"What am I even doing here?" he wondered aloud, "this is a dimension filled with magical talking equines!"
Discord coughed. "And draquonequesi," he added, "as well as griffons, yaks, sea pon-"
"I get the point!" Megatron interrupted, raising his head, "and shouldn't you be working on-"
"Yes, yes, I know," Discord dismissed, "I just can't help but correct you when you make a mistake concerning Equestria's society." He snapped his claw and teleported back to the main cave.
The deep purple ground bridge swirled endlessly, lighting the cave in a purplish light. As Discord walked passed it, his head throbbed. He scratched his chin and looked into it, feeling as though he was missing something. He struggled to put his paw on it for a little while, then muttered and continued on his way.
He was probably just not accustomed to the portal, er, ground bridge's... magic, so to say. That would explain the frequent urges to join the bearers of the Elements of Harmony in stopping Megatron's plan, and why he questioned why he was even helping this strange metal beast that came from another world.
He snorted. Come on, he thought to himself, turning all of Equestria's--
Discord stopped himself. "Oops, can't let you know that yet,"
-----
"Princess Celestia!" Rarity called frantically as she entered the throne room.
Celestia stood up. "Why yes, my little ponies, what-"
"Put the spell you put on the Elements of Harmony to keep Discord from taking them on this comic book!" she interrupted as Bulkhead took it out and handed it to her.
Celestia frowned in surprise at the strange request.
Rarity huffed. "We'll explain later, just do this now."
Celestia eyed them in question, but grasped the comic in her magic and cast the spell. She started to give it back to them, then stopped.
"Why do you need this comic?" she questioned, then turned to the Autobots. "And what are..." she paused, unsure of how to describe the metal monsters without being offensive to them.
"They're the Autobots!" Pinkie started, "they came here from another world, where there are these creatures called humans! Although the Autobots aren't from that world, they're from Cybertron-" she stopped to rub her chin with her hoof. "Wait... did you tell us that yet?"
"No, I do not believe so," Optimus Prime said gravely, "how do you know this?"
"How do I know what?" Pinkie Pie batted her eyes innocently.
Optimus opened his mouth to say something, then closed it.
"Meanwhile," Pinkie continued, "they got brought here by Discord we think, then when we were looking for energon Discord sent Twilight to their world and sent some humans here. They're ponies now."
"And because Twilight was sent to their world," Rarity added, "we can't use the Elements or our Rainbow Power.... however that works, to rein Discord in. But a little while ago we went into a comic book like that one and we turned into its superheroes, and Pinkie Pie has a way that we can become them in the real world again. That should help us with the Discord issue."
Celestia looked at them, puzzled. "But why did Discord sent Twilight away and bring the... Autobots here? Didn't he just learn how important your friendship was to him?"
"Yes, he did," Applejack sighed, "but he doesn't remember us."
The princess' eyes widened with question. "Why?"
"We don't know, princess," Fluttershy answered, "we just don't know."
Celestia returned the comic book, then looked to the Autobots.
"This is... very unexpected," Celestia said to them, "in my two thousand years I have never seen anything like you. Tell me, what are you?"
Ratchet stepped forward. "We are a cybernetic organisms from the planet Cybertron. Although that planet is... no longer available for us to inhabit. We had been in exile on earth since... I'd say 1986."
Celestia raised an eyebrow. "1986?"
"It is how the inhabitants of earth measure their years, 1986 was... thirty years ago. I suppose that you measure your years differently?"
"Yes," Celestia nodded, "it is currently the 207th moon of the Unicorn Century."
Ratchet slowly nodded. "Sure."
The conversation awkwardly died off. They stood there in silence until Celestia finally spoke up.
"Is there another reason for your visit besides me putting spell on the comic?" she inquired.
Rarity coughed. "Right, yes, to introduce you to the Autobots. Which they kind of already did. But still. On the way here we realized that we hadn't yet told you of the Autobot's arrival," she explained, "they arrived a few days ago."
"It's been... pretty chaotic," Rainbow Dash added, "and with Twilight being, well, out of this world, I guess we just forgot," she finished with an apologetic shrug.
"That's perfectly understandable," Celestia assured with a nod, "even I am in shock from this... predicament," she frowned and brought her hoof up to her chin. "Am I forgetting something?"
"Well you do have that meeting with the representatives from Whinnypeg and Horsejaw in half an hour..." Pinkie Pie said, examining a watch that had appeared on her hoof.
Celestia gasped. "I completely forgot," she said, walking towards the door, "and I guess also have to call off the meeting with Shining Armour and the other officers," she looked to the window, "and explain the situation..." her face pained. She turned to the mane five, Spike, and the Autobots.
"Could you write a letter for that and send it to me?" she pleaded.
They nodded. "Don't worry about it, Princess," Spike declared, "we'll do it for you!"
She smiled. "Thank you so much." With a flash of her horn she disappeared.
In a few minutes they had written up a letter and Spike sent it to Celestia. Then they headed out the castle and back through Canterlot.
"So, what do you think?" Rarity asked the Autobots as they walked through the streets, "I suspect our society must be fairly different from yours."
The Autobots nodded collectively. "Quite different," Smokescreen started, "for one we aren't ruled by a princess."
"Yeah, and we sure measure our years differently," Bulkhead added.
"Technically, we're ruled by two princesses," Applejack added, "Princess Celestia, and her sister, Princess Luna. Princess Celestia raises and sets the sun, and Princess Luna raises and sets the moon."
The Autobots turned to the ponies in question.
"You mean to tell us," Arcee started, "that those princesses actually raise and lower the sun and moon?"
Spike and the mane five nodded, oblivious to the Autobots' confusion. They continued on their way.
The Autobots looked at each other warily, but shrugged and followed the others.
-----
Twilight Sparkle nodded at the overbearing officer. In turn she raised her eyebrow.
Twilight groaned. "It's true! I have been a situation like this before," she explained, "well, except they actually believed me, but that's not the point."
The officer sighed. This had to have been her strangest case yet. A teenage girl coming up to the station claiming to be a pony from an alternate dimension and asking for help in getting back to that dimension... even if it was true what kind of technology did she think they had?
But it wasn't true. She knew that.
"Please, Ratchet said that you couldn't use magic, but you do have technology similar to Canterlot High School's. Is there anything you can do?" Twilight pleaded.
The officer raised her shoulders, then let them fall and leaned forward on the desk, folding her hands together.
"Look. I don't know who you are or where you're from, but we don't have what you're looking for, and no one is going to believe you. I don't believe you," she said bluntly, "so you might as well just stop trying to get people to believe your story and accept the real world."
Twilight shook her head. "No, I'm telling the truth. I know how crazy it sounds-"
"Yes, it's crazy," the officer interrupted, "so stop telling people it." She pulled the window closed, cutting Twilight off.
The misplaced princess sat there in shock. She had been... refused. They didn't believe her.
She narrowed her eyes. She was the Princess of Friendship. She may not have her powers here, but thanks to her experiences and Ratchet she had knowledge. That would be enough.
With a huff she stood up and left. She would get someone else to listen to her.