//------------------------------//
// Discovery 
// Story: Equestria: Transformation 
// by Fairweather 
//------------------------------//

When the Spark of Harmony is ignited, the Tree shines the pure light through its very roots, feeding life and strength to the land itself, singing its Silent Song across the void.

Such were the final words of the The Pure Tree. Twilight Sparkle placed the book down, trying, and failing, to suppress a sigh. The sheer elation she felt when Princess Celestia had brought her the only book that had the Tree of Harmony as its primary subject was nowhere to be found now that she had finished it. 200 pages, half the day spent carefully reading through every passage, studying each illustration, comparing notes, and after all that, all she had were theories and its physical properties, which she had already gathered on her own studies of the Tree. She had searched all throughout the Canterlot and Crystal Empire libraries to find anything regarding the Tree of Harmony. Celestia had even put out inquiries to all her personal contacts specializing in ancient, Pre-Equestrian locations and anomalies. Despite all of that, it had taken nearly Two years before one of Celestia's former students presented The Pure Tree to her, who in turn presented it to a then ecstatic Twilight, and what did the only book of its kind contain? Nothing that Twilight hadn't already deduced or hypothesized. Two years, all of Celestia's efforts and it ultimately led to nothing new being learned.

"UGH!" The bottled up frustration exploded suddenly in a loud groan from the Alicorn that echoed slightly around the castle library. She glared at the final page of the book, empty save for the one sentence, written almost like the beginning to a poem. Just one more puzzle added to the list, she thought angrily.

Her ears suddenly perked up as she heard the familiar sound of wing flaps, followed by the quiet clops of hooves touching the floor. "Heya Twi!" Rainbow Dash called out with a grin as she entered the castle library. "How's the studying going?"

"Ehhh," was her only response as she closed the book.

"That bad, huh?" The Pegasus' tone was casual as she walked up to the Princess' desk, but her grin dropped. 

"Guessing it didn't have any answers about the Tree?" She asked as she eyed the snow white cover of the book.

"Oh, it did," Twilight replied. "But only the answers I had already figured out from my own studies." Her horn glowed as she levitated the book up along with the various notes she had made from her own frequent studies of the Tree of Harmony, the book opening to different parts of the Tree held next to the matching notes, quickly moving from section to section and note to note. "Physical properties of the Tree? One of the first things I learned about. Magical influence on the surrounding land? Already knew that. Semi-intelligent capabilities? First-hoof experience even before I started studying the Tree. But the things that I haven't been able to figure out myself, like its origins, not even the book knows."

Rainbow did her best to follow the tidal wave of information Twilight held in front of here, but most of what was contained on the papers flew past her and those that she managed to read quickly vanished from her mind to make room for what she was saying, which was far easier for her to grasp. She blinked at Twilight's last statement. "Really? But isn't that book ancient? Like, Pre-Equestrian? Shouldn't it at least have something about where the Tree came from?"

Twilight shook her head, the notes and the book being placed back on her desk in a tidy, well organized pile. "The book only had a few theories, and those were vague at best. It seems even that far back, the Tree of Harmony was a mystery to the Ponies who first discovered it. Which means the Tree of Harmony is the single oldest magical phenomenon in Equestria. Which means, unless we find an even older book or scroll that has any, for lack of a better term, new information, I doubt we'll ever find out about the Tree's origins."

Twilight sighed again, her ears drooping as the disappointment hit her again.

Rainbow frowned and put a hoof on the Alicorn's shoulder. "You've really been tearing yourself up these last few years over that Tree. This past week especially. Hay, you've barely left the library for the past three days reading that one book!"

"Not just the book," Twilight muttered. "I've been comparing the notes I've made with my studies, and checking limited passages from other books and scrolls on the sub-"

"Ah-buh-buh-buh!" Rainbow interrupted with a shake of her head, her other fore hoof placed on Twilight's lips, her wings extended to maintain her balance. "My point is, you've been spending Way too much time cooped up in here trying to figure the Tree of Harmony out. You're also needlessly stressing yourself out again and, if this keeps up, you'll be worrying the others too. You need to take a break from this. A big, long break."

Rainbow lowered her hoof and Twilight nodded with a smile. "You're probably right, Dash." Still, a nagging thought lingered, and she felt her gaze draw back to the snow white book that sat on her desk. "Still..."

A blue hoof touched her cheek, and tilted her head back to face the rainbow-maned Pegasus. "Look, I'm not saying you should abandon this completely or anything, just don't go stressing out over not knowing about where the Tree came from for now. You're one of the smartest mares I know, you'll figure this out, but only after you've spent a lot of time clearing your head from this, okay?"

"Okay, you're right." Twilight relented, moving to nuzzle Rainbow. "I'll shelve this for the time being. Don't want to turn back into a shut-in now do I?"

"Nah, you're way too important for that." Rainbow replied, nuzzling the Alicorn back.

"Yeah, Equestria still needs their Princess of Friendship."

"Wasn't talking about Equestria and you know it."

Twilight giggled at that, giving the Pegasus a quick kiss on the cheek. "So, since I've finished my studying on the Tree, have any ideas on what to do? Maybe a quick flight outside? I think some fresh air would do me some good." Twilight moved to leave the room, expecting Rainbow to be right next to her, if not already dashing out for the entrance. Instead, she was stopped by an extended wing.

"As much as I would love to do that..." Rainbow said, giving a critical, and very unimpressed, eye on Twilight's wings. 

Oh no, she thought as Rainbow shook her head. "You're wings are an absolute mess, you didn't do any kind of cleaning on them these past few days, did you?"

"I preened them last week!" Twilight said defensively, earning a sigh from the Pegasus.

"You're supposed to do them every two days, three at the most!" She carefully took Twilight's left wing in her hooves and unfurled it, and looked as if she was having difficulty keeping her eyes on it. "This is just disgraceful, Twi."

"Okay, I get it!" The Alicorn responded, snapping her wing closed and trying to hide the blush on her face, this sort of thing had happened all to often before. "You're gonna spend the next hour cleaning them, aren't you?"

"Somepony has to." Rainbow replied, gesturing with her head toward the doorway. "Come on, a library is no place to do something like this in."

Twilight groaned in exasperation, knowing full well that Rainbow wasn't going to let this go for a while, as she had always done in the past. Even after nine years, I still forget to clean these wings from time to time... I didn't even think anything was wrong with them. She smiled and shook her head as she followed Rainbow Dash out of the library. Rainbow, what would I do without you?

As she left, she levitated the doors closed, leaving the notes on her desk, and the snow white book, its cover almost glowing in the darkness.



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Deep in the vacuum of space, the ship Hand of Primus flew in complete silence, propelled by the thrust of its engines over twenty years ago. The engines had long since cooled down and remained offline, as did many of the ship's systems. In the long, pitch black corridors of the ship, several large pods sat, dark and silent. Until one of the pods lit up, a myriad of lights emanated from several ports, and a growing hum sounded as energy was poured into the pod, causing it to glow as power coursed through its circuitry and its occupant. With a jolt and a gasp, the tall, mechanical being pushed the pod's casing away, stumbling out with heavy, metallic clangs echoing as his feet landed on the metal floor. 

Although humanoid in appearance, the being's metallic 'skin' was a dull gray. His torso, fore arms and legs were covered in a bulky looking white armour plating. On of the sides of his armoured arms, boldly inscribed on large, black letters was RCMP. His head unit was also armoured with a white shell, with a bright red prong bolted to the front. On the center of his chest was the Mark of Primus, the symbol that proudly showed his loyalty to Cybertron and the Autobots.

"Stasis awakening complete." A robotic voice echoed from seemingly nowhere as the newly-awakened machine groaned, rubbing at his blue visor. "Welcome back online, Commander Prowl." The voice greeted.

Wish I could say the same thing, Prowl wanted to grumble out loud, but instead spoke with a tired professionalism. "Teletraan Six, report."

"It has been roughly twenty Stellar Cycles since the Hand of Primus departed from Cybertron," the computer reported. "We are over one-hundred and fifty Light Years from the Space Bridge Network."

Long way from home. And backup. Prowl shook his head, waiting for the rest of his systems to come back into being fully online, but his servos felt so... stiff. I hate waking up from stasis. "Have we come across any significant sources of Energon?"

"Negative." Teletraan Six answered.

"Of course we haven't." Prowl grumbled. "Because that would solve too many of our problems."

"However," Six continued. "Perceptor has been manually monitoring communications and sensors on the bridge, he has requested that you be awakened from stasis."

"Oh has he?" The military commander responded. "Well, considering no alarms are blaring and that nothing's on fire, I doubt it's cause we're under attack."

"If we were under attack from hostile forces, I would've immediately woken all units from stasis and dispensed with the pleasantries, Commander Prowl."

"Heh, of course." Prowl chuckled.

"In any case, Perceptor has kindly requested you see him on the bridge."

"Never would've guessed." Prowl deadpanned. "Alright, better not keep him waiting."

His systems were still rebooting, but Prowl was never one to wait unless it was for an ambush. "Transform and Roll Out!" With the techno sounds of servos and parts quickly rearranging themselves, armour and circuitry moving in a fluid motion, the giant, humanoid machine was a sturdy police vehicle from the human world of Terra in a matter of seconds. The car lightly rumbling as its engine purred to life, perfectly disguised for a split second until Prowl howled in pain.

"AAAAAAAIIIIEEEEGGGH!!! SWEET PRIMUS THAT...That..." He paused as he evaluated his systems status. "That actually feels good. Huh. Guess all my systems needed was a bit of a jump-start. Gotta remember that the next time they decide to shove me into one of these pods."

With that, Prowl's engine roared as the tires screamed against the metal floor, the police vehicle racing down the corridor. It wasn't long before he reached the bridge of the ship, thanks to the speed he was going and that it was a simple straight line. The large doors parted quickly as he sped past, screeching to a halt before transforming back into his robot mode, this transformation far smoother than his previous one.

"Yikes," he commented as his optics adjusted to the almost pitch blackness on the bridge. The only source of light was from a single console at the very front of the bridge, which was blocked by another robotic form. "And I thought the stasis corridor was dark."

The other form turned, and Prowl could make out the smile on his face. Unlike Prowl, Perceptor was far less armoured, yet seemed bulkier from the rectangular shapes of his dark red torso and limbs, the Mark of Primus inscribed on his shoulder plates. His optics were separated into two separate units, allowing for easier expression, unlike Prowl's own single visor. "Ahh, Commander Prowl, how was your stasis sleep?" 

Prowl shrugged, an expression he had learned from his time with the Humans back in the War. "Well, considering I was woken up from a rather nice dream involving two femme-bots with twin-sparks, an oil bath and, uh..." He stopped himself when Perceptor tilted his head slightly. "Long-story-short, this had better be good, Perceptor."

"Of course, of course." The bot replied. "I've been tracking the beacon signal that we detected back on Cybertron."

Now Prowl was tilting his head in confusion. "Huh? I was told that the signal was too far away to be effectively tracked, hence why the Hand was sent out here."

"It was," Perceptor replied, turning toward the console and tapping at a key, where the screen showed multiple symbols and shapes. "But I've recently been receiving more and more pulses from the beacon, these seem far more recent than the ones Cybertron received."

"What do you mean?"

"As Teletraan Six likely informed you, we are over one-hundred and fifty light years from the nearest Space Bridge, and over four-hundred light years from Cybertron itself, judging by the sheer distance from the beacon's location and the time it took for the original signal to reach Cybertron, the signal was likely originally sent more then one thousand stellar cycles ago. However, not only have I detected several more signal pulses from the beacon, but these are many times stronger then what Cybertron has received."

"So... we're getting closer?"

"Indeed, and I've been able to get far clearer readings from each pulse, which seemed to have increased to frequency. Which means not only can we more effectively pinpoint where the beacon is located, but it also shows that its power source is beyond many conventional means of energy."

Prowl stared, and felt his Spark shake slightly in anticipation. "You don't mean...?"

"That the world the beacon is on is likely teeming with Energon." Perceptor said with a smile. "We won't know for sure until we get there, but it data I gathered from the signal's strength is definitely promising."

"Well, I'll be..." Prowl grinned as he turned to the vidscreen, which showed the deep blackness of space, a few stars hung in the background. "Good news after all. I was starting to think this little expedition was going to be a waste. Things might finally be looking up for us."

Perceptor nodded and tapped another key on the console, which showed multiple displays and data bits that only the scientist could understand. "I've already set course for the system the beacon is located, we should arrive in about 4 deca-cycles. In the meantime, I've launched a probe that should reach the system shortly before waking you up, so we'll have a good idea of what we're looking at by the time we reach the system's edge."

Prowl turned his attention back on the scientist and nodded in approval. "Good thinking Perceptor, I'd hate for some nasty surprises to get the drop on us. Hopefully, though, there won't be any Decepticons waiting for us when we get there."

"Even if there were Decepticons there, all intel reports indicated that they haven't been able to front a unified effort since Megatron and Optimus Prime vanished all those stellar cycles ago." Perceptor replied. "So if there are any, they'd likely just be raiders or scavengers, something we can easily handle."

Prowl, however, shook his head. "Unified or not, the Decepticons are never easy to handle."

"Even so, Commander Prowl, there's been no indication that the Decepticons have ever ventured this far out, this expedition alone is the furthest a Cybertronian vessel has ever traveled." 

"Yeah well, given how many of Megatron's surviving lieutenants have managed to evade us for this long without detection, who's to say they haven't already and we just don't know about it?" Prowl replied with a grim frown. "Besides, if there's Energon, they'll eventually travel this far for it. I just hope we'll be the ones to beat them to it for a change, and that when they do show up, we'll be ready for them."



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Far ahead of the Autobot ship, the comparatively tiny probe zipped through space, speeding ahead to reach its destination. Not even slowing down as it came up to a drifting cluster of asteroids. On one of the small shards of stone a slim, sleek, human-sized machine stood still and silent. Her metallic purple and silver form gleamed against the light from the distant stars, long steel wings stretched out from her back, the Mark of Kaon imprinted at the center of each wing, showing her allegiance to the glory of Cybertron and the Decepticons. A large purple cannon was attached to her left arm, which was crossed with her right arm over her chest as she stood in the vastness of space, completely bored. Her dark purple eyes stared at the nothingness before and all around her, a frown etched on her silver face. At least until she saw the small probe zoom past her.

"Hm?" Her eyes following it as a puzzled expression came on her face, before a light grin appeared. Finally, a chance for us to get off this dust ball!

Back-flipping off of the rock, she briefly tumbled through the vacuum before seamlessly transforming into a small single drone-jet, based off the appearance of the drone-jets the humans had used near the end of the War, the cannon shifted to just under the nose, a single engine flared with a purple flame as the tiny craft propelled itself toward the largest asteroid. Flying through a large tunnel entrance, the small Decepticon quickly came upon a large open space, where several other Cybertronians that towered over her sat, save for one, who was facing a deactivated console.

The tiny jet zoomed loudly into the center of the space, before tilting up and flipping around, transforming in less then a second, she hovered in the air briefly before falling to the steel floor, landing on her feet with a loud clang that echoed around the chamber. 

"Commander Starscream!" She called out, regaining her posture.

"This had better be important, Slipstream." The mechanical being answered, turning from the console and looking down at the tiny form. Starscream's form, which was visually identical to the rest of the Decepticon Seekers, was designed to make him stand out, his torso was a bright red, save for the golden rounded cylinder that housed his spark and acted as the cockpit in his jet form. Attached to each of his silver arms were a pair of sleek cannons, which housed his powerful Null Rays, his signature and most feared weapon. His silver wings, while not as long and thin as Slipstream's own, still had the Mark of Kaon imprinted on them. His armoured head was a dark, dark grey, causing his red eyes to stand out even more.

"Sir!" Slipstream placed left arm over her chest and quickly bowed her head in salute. "A probe just passed by us, it was Cybertronian in design."

Several of the Seekers sat up from their previously bored positions, while Starscream's optics widened. "Autobots?"

"Who else?" Slipstream replied, grinning as she saw the fear in her leader's optics. Even though she knew that if the Autobots detected them, they were likely all done for, she always took a certain amount of pleasure at seeing Starscream afraid, no matter the circumstances. "Fortunately, it didn't even slow down as it passed by us, I think it's heading to one of the nearby star systems."

Many of the Decepticon Seekers relaxed at that, including Starscream himself. He placed a hand on his chin as he thought. "What are the Autobots doing all the way out here? We're light years away from the nearest Space Bridge."

"Probably a hunting party to find renegade Decepticons like us." A somewhat dulled voice called out from behind Slipstream, she turned and saw the Seeker Thundercracker stand up. "Why else come this far out?"

Slipstream shook her head. "I doubt it. The Bots aren't known to come looking for a fight when nothing's at stake for them. We're beaten, scattered, and leaderless, that's good enough for them." She turned back to Starscream. "There is, however, one good reason that would draw them this far out from the Space Bridge Network."

Starscream thought for a moment, before a wicked grin appeared on his face. "Energon! The Autobots have found a new Energon source!"

"Exactly!" Slipstream replied with her own grin.

The expressions on the others, however, was one of hope. "Energon!?" Skywarp said in awe. "We haven't had Energon in Stellar Cycles!"

Thundercracker nodded. "My weapon systems have been at 5% for far too long, if I had even a little bit of Energon, I'd be a true warrior again!"

"We'd all be true warriors again!" Nova Storm corrected.

"And we'd finally have some action as well!" Slipstream added.

"Yesss..." Starscream muttered. "We follow the probe to the Energon, take it and secure it, strengthening ourselves so we can repel the Autobots when they get there, and then..." His grin widened. "I'd have a new source of Energon under my direct control! The other Decepticons would have no choice but to accept me as their New Leader at last!!"

Slipstream rolled her optics in exasperation, the other Seekers however nodded in excitement.

"Once unified," Thundercracker said, raising his hand to the air and clenching his fist. "We can finally resume the War and beat the Autobots from Cybertron, destroying them once and for all!"

"Then we can take the fight to the Human filth who allied with the Autobots!" Nacelle said. "We'll wipe out the other half of their pathetic little world for daring to stand against us!"

The Decepticon Seekers cried out in agreement, they had all been humiliated by the Humans on Terra during the War and were eager to exact revenge, Slipstream herself didn't mind the idea, it was what Starscream created her for, after all.

"Yes!" The Decepticon Commander shouted. "And I shall lead you all and the Decepticon forces through these glorious battlefields until we are the sole rulers of the galaxy!"

The Seekers cheered, raising their fists to the air as they cried out several things. "Glory to the Decepticon cause!" "Glory for Cybertron!" "All hail Starscream!" "Death to the Humans!" "Death to the Autobots!"

Starscream spread his arms open in a majestic way. "Today is the start a new era, my fellow Decepticons! We will follow that probe to our destiny! Transform and Rise Up!"

With, the Decepticon Seekers each shifted to their jet forms, Slipstream quickly moving and attaching herself to the top of Starscream's Jet. "Well done, Slipstream." The Seeker leader commented as they all flew out of the asteroid in close formation, their ion engines screaming as they followed in the direction of the probe from the data Slipstream had quickly gathered. Slipstream herself was just glad they'd be having some action shortly.